I’ve written about childhood cancer before and my son’s battle with it. I’ve wanted to share some of the blogs that I read daily of other kids fighting this beast but most expect some level of privacy and linking to them on twitter would be crossing a line. Molly’s family has already made things very public and tweets about her have already appeared in the #DadsTalking hashtag.

Molly who is all of 4 weeks old was diagnosed Christmas Eve in Victoria, BC with ALL (Acute lymphoblastic leukemia). As with all children in BC she was sent to BC Children’s Hospital. In her case she was considered critical enough that they sent her by helicopter. Victoria is about 3 hours travel time from Vancouver where Children’s Hospital is. That is if you hit the ferries right otherwise its about four. They would have started treatment immediately and probably in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). Both parents got on the helicopter with her. This meant they were in Vancouver while their 4 other children, 6 and under were at home for Christmas morning. There is a lot more on their website to go read including progress updates. Molly’s Website

BC Children’s is where my son was treated for his neuroblastoma. I can’t say enough about all the Doctor, nurses and other staff there. I know they will get the best possible treatment. Right now they are in the shock stage. To much is happening, they have a million questions and not a lot of answers. In the coming weeks things will get worked out and they will settle into the treatment routine. The community will step up and work to remove the extraneous concerns they have and leave them to focus on their daughter and family.

What can we do to help? Obviously money is the most direct way to help them and they do have a donate button on their site. Some less direct ways:

Prayer: Say a prayer for her and her family everyday. I’ve also seen people organize a 24 hour vigil where people take 30 min turn praying over a 24 hour period for those particularly difficult times. I may try to organize these latter in treatment if there is enough interest.

Donate Blood: These kids go through a lot of blood products. Chemo kills of any fast growing cells. That included hair, and blood cells. They can top off the red blood cells and the platelets. The white blood cells they can’t and that is why these kids are so vulnerable to infection. In Philip’s treatment he needed a total of 33 units.

Canada: Blood Services
USA: Red Cross

Register to become a Bone Marrow Donor: I can think of four kids off the top of my head that are alive today thanks to an anonymous Bone marrow donor.

Canada: Blood Services
USA: National Marrow Donor Program

I have some other idea but those require more information from the family and more organization so we will see. If you do one of these actions let me know and I will note it. It would be nice to see the power of the #DadsTalking group.

Update: As I said above the community came together and they have found accommodations and raised just over $70,000. They are planning on donating any excess to the hospital.