So it seems that this is the 3rd year Team Ezra! will be a raising money for the LLS. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raises money to fund blood cancer research and to help families financially that have a loved one struggling with this disease.
Last night Milo showed me something he is reading for his science class - it was about Leukemia. The irony. Milo knows more about Leukemia than anyone sitting in his science class. At 12 years old he could give the class lecture. He could give all the facts. And then he could tell more. What is it like to lose your identical twin, who also happens to be your best friend? Not many people know what that would feel like, but Milo does. How does your family change after one of the kids die. He knows all about that too.
His homework reading assignment was just about what the disease is. But here are some facts about the disease. Fact: every 4 minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer and every 10 minutes someone dies from one. Fact: over 54,000 people in the US will die from a blood cancer this year. Fact: Leukemia, in particular causes more deaths than any other cancer in children and youth under the age of 20.
Unfortunately, Leukemia isn't just about facts to our family or to any other family touched by this disease. Leukemia is about sadness, loss, devastation, and heartbreak.
As many of you know, my son Ezra had Leukemia for less than one week before he was diagnosed. It was so fast and so silent. On the day Ezra was diagnosed he was doing fitness tests in PE and taking a test for advanced placement learning opportunities. He ran around with friends at lunch. He stayed after school to play with his brother and friends.
And when our extremely healthy 10 year old said he wasn't feeling well later that evening, we were concerned. Concerned enough to take him to urgent care, even though the consulting nurse thought it was nothing and there was no need to bring him in. Within minutes of arriving at Urgent Care, Ezra slipped into a coma. Not that we knew it, we just thought he had fallen asleep. He had. A few minutes later blood tests came back and we heard the words Leukemia for the first time. He presented with a white blood cell count well over 300,000. Ezra never woke up and died 6 days later.
We received test results after Ezra died, it seems he had a very rare and aggressive form of Leukemia that here in the US only about 10 kids a year get. Their odds at survival are less than 5%. Here is another fact. I read recently that children diagnosed with Leukemia - that present with very high white blood cell counts are not likely to survive.
Leukemia sucks. It killed my son. There aren't any facts or statistics that can explain what that feels like.
And so, for all of these reasons our family is raising money for the LLS . I hope you can join us in our fight against Leukemia. Donate to Team Ezra!
