DelawareOnline.com

6/12/2015

For the Calbanaza family, a lemonade stand is one of the best ways to fight childhood cancer.

The Middletown family was chosen to represent Delaware during Alex’s Lemonade Days for the Alex’s Stand Foundation. The fundraiser is a national movement where supporters hold lemonade stands to raise money for childhood cancer research.

The organization selected one “Hero Family” in each state to showcase the efforts of the fundraisers. The group was founded by Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who died of childhood cancer in 2004 and raised money through lemonade stands to fund finding a cure.

The Calbanaza family became involved with the foundation after oldest daughter Olivia was diagnosed with Stage 4 medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor on the cerebellum, in 2008. Olivia was 3 years old.

After removing the tumor, Olivia was mute and had no core body strength. She had to relearn to walk and met with a speech therapist. Meanwhile, her parents had to wrestle with an impossible decision.

“There is no standard or set treatment for medullo,” said Lulu Calbazana, Olivia’s mom. “At that time there were three different treatment options for her.”

One included high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue, with the possibility of radiation at the end. The second included eight doses of chemotherapy and standard radiation. The last was chemotherapy and low-dose radiation.

They went with the third option, hoping the course would give her a chance to live and the lower dose would minimize the lasting effects. She started her first round of chemo two days before Christmas Eve.

The family also faced a tough choice after the treatment started. One of the chemo drugs had damaged her hearing. They decided to go without that drug for the last dose.

Decisions like this are a big reason the Calbazana family works to raise money for pediatric cancer.

“There’s not a lot of money, there’s not a lot of awareness that goes into kids’ cancers,” Lulu said. “I wanted to do more.”

Aside from raising funds and awareness for pediatric cancers, Olivia’s parents also have focused on making sure she was able to just be a kid.

While she was being treated, they would take trips to the aquarium or to the beach. Olivia designated Saturdays as “fun day,” so there was also something for them to do.

Olivia, now 9, has also gone on trips to Jamaica and Disney. She said Disney was her favorite trip.

She was adopted by the University of Delaware volleyball team and equestrian team. She enjoys doing art, playing dress-up with her little sister, Gabriella, 6, and taking karate.

Olivia has had no evidence of disease since March 2010, though she still gets scanned every 10 months.

The treatment did leave Olivia with some last effects. She has some issues with her teeth, hearing and cognitive processing, as well as some others. In spite of the problems, Olivia excels.

“She has been on first and second honors this whole year,” Lulu said. “Does it take her more to accomplish things? Yes. Does she have to work harder than other kids? Yes. She doesn’t know the limitations she supposedly has. It works for her.”

The Calbazana family plans to have stands 9 a.m.-noon Saturday at Memorial Park at Mechanic and Leahy streets in Odessa and after the 9:15 service Sunday at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 406 Main St. in Odessa.