Our Heroes:

A message from Jay and Liz Scott, Alex's Parents:

"Many of you know Alex as a courageous cancer advocate, a hero, the lemonade girl who was an inspiration to millions around the world. To us, she was all of these things but so much more. She was our only daughter, cherished by her three brothers, her doting grandparents, and her dozens of cousins. She loved American Idol, playing with dolls, and reading Little House on The Prairie Books. She was a little girl, filled with hopes and dreams for a long life.

Although she did not get the chance to live a long life, she showed us what it means to live a full life. Her bravery and composure throughout her life inspired us to be stronger, better people. Her efforts to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer while she fought so terribly against her own cancer inspired us to keep working to help other children and families. Her love of life inspired us to love our lives. She is our hero."

Since Alex was diagnosed in 1997, over 2 million more children worldwide have suffered because of cancer. These kids all have hopes and dreams of long lives. They have brothers and sisters, grandparents, and cousins who cherish them. They all inspire those who know them with their bravery, strength, and love of life. They are all heroes.

Arden Quinn Bucher

Just one month before her 3rd birthday, Arden had been playing hard up to the very day the first symptom appeared.  She had no prior indication that anything was wrong.  She ran, jumped, climbed, and danced.  She enjoyed playing on her swingset, singing in her music class, swimming at the Y, and painting.  She has always been a happy, friendly, loving little girl.  She slept well, had a great appetite, and had boundless energy.  On Tuesday night, October 9, 2007, she woke up at 9:20 pm, screaming out in pain.  I (her Mom) knew immediately that it was a scream I had never heard before; it was not a nightmare, definitely not just discomfort.  I found her writhing around in her bed in a fetal position, and when I asked her what was wrong, she said her tummy was hurting.  She was covered in sweat, yet cold to the touch.  When I took her downstairs to take her temperature, she was the palest I've ever seen, even in her lips.  Her first axillary temp was 93, the second and third were both 94.  After getting advice from my parents, who volunteered to come over to watch Arden's baby brother if needed, I phoned the pediatrician on emergency call, who advised me to take her to the closest ER (even thought it was a smaller hospital; he thought they would at least know if it was appendicitis quickly.)

After 4 hours, one abdominal X-Ray, and lots of waiting around, we were advised to follow up with our pediatrician the next day.  Her belly was soft, and they didn't find anything on the x-ray.  They thought it might be mild constipation (even though I knew she was having regular bowel movements) or gas.

The next day, Arden was more herself, although I noticed she took more breaks from her play than usual.  The stomach pain seemed more intermittent as well.  The pediatrician examined her and said we should start her on 1/2 dosage of Miralax to rule out the idea of constipation. She also gave me a list of "things to watch for" that might necessitate another trip to the ER (at a children's hospital this time.)

Sure enough, Arden's condition degenerated during the evening, and by Thursday morning, she accumulated each of the "things to watch for" the doctor mentioned the previous day. She was very still, didn't want to be moved, had no appetite, and had a low-grade fever. We called the office again, and once my father came to watch the baby, we were off to meet my husband at A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE.

After a series of tests, from physical exams, to x-rays, ultrasounds, to finally a cat-scan, we had a finding that there was a mass in her abdomen, a tumor. There were strong indications that there was a sack of blood surrounding it, so most likely, some kind of bleeding had occurred (which might have been what caused the sudden pains for her Tues. night.) The tumor measured approximately 10 cm. by 6 cm. They said they suspected Neuroblastoma. The MIBG scan and biopsies confirmed the diagnosis, and Arden's case was considered stage IV, high risk.  We later found out that her battle was made all the more challenging because her NMYC was amplified, and her tumor had an unfavorable Schimada rating.  Thankfully, we are surrounded by the prayers, support, and help of family and friends as we struggle to understand all of this while still being strong for Arden during treatment.  We have enjoyed the "good moments" with her, the time between painful pokes, tests, surgeries, procedures, vital checks, and visits by strangers who want to "take a listen," when she could smile, enjoy books, and even play.

We know our little girl has a fighting spirit, and we pray that she can focus that fight inward, especially now, as she fights for life on an oscillator in the PICU at CHOP, having gone into respiratory failure after her second stem cell rescue.  We've been so afraid of the Cancer; it had become easy to forget just how toxic the treatments are.  She is a Cancer survivor, having been declared N.E.D. (no evidence of disease) in April, 2008.  Now, we need her to be a Cancer treatment survivor as well.  We appreciate everyone's prayers for her recovery.  God bless. .

You are welcome to follow her journey on www.caringbridge.org/visit/ardenquinn

Written by her proud mom, Amy Bucher

Brian Montgomery

Brian was always a very healthy and active little boy.  He put FUN into everything he did and had FUN with everyone he knew. He was part of a loving family and he had 2 beautiful sisters as his best playmates.  It seemed as though everything was perfect, then cancer entered our world just before his 8th birthday.  A brain tumor was the last thing that we would have imagined.  Brian took the challenge like a trooper and began his 8th birthday with the fight for his life. Brain had a Glioblastoma Multiform Level IV tumor.  The prognosis was not good, but we knew that if anyone could beat this cancer, Brian could. 

Through most of his treatments Brian had a smile on his face and continued his Karate/Tae Kwon Do lessons and kept us all entertained with his jokes.  The chemo was 45 straight days and radiation was 33 days at the same time.  It was hard on him, but he spent as much time during all of this playing with his friends under tents set up in our backyard and collecting bracelets.  After the initial treatment he would be placed on a protocol that would only call for chemo 5 days a month.  This was easy for him as he would say, so as any young boy should, he would go to school, play with his friends and go on to earn 2 new belts in Karate/Tae Kwon Do by breaking boards with his feet while mommy worried about his blood counts.

In November Brian got his wish of a trip to Disney World with his sisters and family, we even celebrated a wonderful Christmas together.  Our world would come crashing down in late February and we received the news that the tumor was progressing.  Brian kept us together, laughing and enjoying all that we could.  He loved spending time playing video games with his sisters and daddy.  Brian became our little angel on April 3, 2006.  In his memory, Alex's Lemonade stands were started in Kent, Ohio by the Huscroft family (their daughter was in Brian's class). Brian's memory is kept alive through the Spirit Award given away every fall to an outstanding student of Kids in Karate in Kent, Ohio also. His classmates also raise money every year for brain tumor research.

Brian will forever be remembered for his smile, big ears, love of the color pink and gift of joke telling. He remains in the hearts of many and will be forever missed by all.  

Kayla Danzi

On Friday, June 8th our lives were changed forever. We received the phone call that is every parent’s worst night- mare. Our pediatrician was on the phone telling us that our beautiful little girl, Kayla, who just celebrated her 4th birthday in April, had Leukemia and we had to get to Children’s Hospital within two to three hours. We immediately took her to CHOP and were told to sit and someone would be right with us. A few minutes later, a nurse came and brought us to a room where we were greeted by a doctor.

It was confirmed that Kayla had High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and that we would be living at CHOP for the next few weeks. Everything else from that moment on is a blur. We spent the next 35 days watching our little girl slowly begin to look like a cancer patient. Although they were able to get her into Remission by the 3rd week, she was  already losing her hair, getting sick from the chemotherapy and had lost 10% of her body weight. Due to her extreme weight loss, a feeding tube was placed to allow her the nutrition she needed. Her sprits were very low at this point.

On July 11th we were finally able to take her home. We were told that she would be in treatment (mostly outpatient) for the next 2 ½ years.   The next several months were very hard on her little body.  Being treated as an outpatient, we sometimes spent three days a week at clinic.  More often than not we were there from 8 AM to 5PM.  Although the chemotherapy she was getting was in very high doses, she seemed to tolerate it pretty well.  She continued to keep the feeding tube in for longer then we had hoped.  It was however much easier to give her medicine this way and we knew she was getting a good amount of nutrition.   We were told that December and January would be particularly hard months for her and to expect for possible hospital admissions. 

On January 12, 2008, Kayla had some belly pain and a low grade fever.  Fevers are what the doctors worry about most, because of the possibility of infection.  We took her to CHOP, ER and were sent home after what seemed like forever.  We were told what to watch for.  The next day, she continued to have belly pain and a low grade fever.  We went to the ER again that night and were admitted.  After several blood test, ultrasounds, a cat scan and an MRI, which were all new to us and Kayla, they were able to come up with a diagnosis.  Kayla had a very rare side effect of one of her chemo meds.  She had VOD.  Veno occlusive Disease.  This side effect occurs in 1% of patients.  We spent the next month in the hospital while she worsened and required oxygen and was unable to get out of bed due to the size of her stomach.  VOD causes the belly to fill with fluid. 

We were discharged from the hospital on February 7th 2008.   A few days later we went to clinic for a follow-up.  Her counts came back great and we were able to start the next and last phase of chemo called Maintenance, which will continue for about two years.  It is much lower doses of chemo.  This is the phase that all Cancer parents say “You get your kid back.  They were right.  She is back.  Vibrant, happy, healthy and dancing just like she did before she was diagnosed.

~Susan, Jeff, Shawn, Kayla and Ava Danzi