Mary Evelyn is seven-years-old and loves to play with her friends, shop for cool clothes and play with her dolls. She wants to be a mermaid when she grows up. She wants to be a "regular girl", but she has had to become a fighter whose faith and courage inspires others. She was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma when she was only two-years-old and was in remission for four years before relapsing with the same cancer.  When we told her the devastating news, she knew how hard a battle lay ahead of her. She was quiet for a few minutes and then told me she had been speaking to the cancer. “Cancer,” she said in her little voice, “I beat you once and I will beat you again in the blink of your evil eye!”

Neuroblastma is a rare and aggressive childhood cancer that has a survival rate of only about 30%. When we found out that Mary Evelyn had it the first time, she had a large tumor in her abdomen and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, blood and bones. There were spots of it throughout her little body. In the months that followed, Mary Evelyn had six rounds of chemotherapy, major surgery to remove the pear sized tumor, two bone marrow transplants, radiation, drug therapy and lots of hospitalizations. We were suddenly thrust into a world of endless beeps of IV machines, dressing changes, vomit and nerve wracking scans.

Thankfully, we were surrounded by family, friends and the loving doctors and nurses who were on this journey with us. We found strength we never imagined that we had and learned to live in the moment because the future was so uncertain. Our family learned to accept these things and to find hope and joy in spite of them. Mary Evelyn herself said that she needed three things in order to get better: to stay cute, keep the monsters away and to clean up the bone marrow! Keeping her cute was easy, lessening her fears was harder and the treatments necessary to get the cancer out of the bone marrow were almost unbearable, but somehow we made it through.

 The cancer took a lot away from Mary Evelyn, but she gained something special - the gift of a compassionate heart. Mary Evelyn's wish is that the children who have cancer will get better. She loves to do whatever she can to help that dream come true. Our family and friends held a lemonade stand in our small town and raised over $2,000. It was a wonderful experience because we were able to raise more than just money, we raised awareness of the need to help children with cancer. By sharing our personal story with many people, we could also let them know about the lack of funding and research for pediatric cancers. Many people have told me that hearing her story gives them hope and courage to fight their own battles and I am grateful that good is coming out of it. We hope that her story and efforts will help many more children in the years to come as we all work together to find cures for childhood cancers and help for the children touched by it.

Relapsed neuroblastama has no known cure, but there is hope that a cure will be discovered in time to save Mary Evelyn’s life. Researchers believe they are on the cusp of a breakthrough in treating neuroblastoma and in the meantime, her oncologists are developing a unique treatment plan to fight the cancer that is attacking her body and beat it, hopefully in the blink of its evil eye. Mary Evelyn is continuing her efforts to help other children with cancer by sharing her story and encouraging people to donate money to fund the research she so desperately needs.

Written by Edna King, Mary Evelyn’s Mom
Updated: 4/10

Update: Sadly, Mary Evelyn passed away in October of 2010.