Team Meghan

Friday night Isabelle and I went to an incredible fundraiser dance for my cousin and her family. For those of you that I haven’t spoken to about it, my cousin Michelle’s daughter Meghan was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin ALCL Lymphoma (Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma) in mid-September. Meghan should have been starting grade 9, but instead was enduring surgery (where they removed an 8cm tumor along with her right ovary and fallopian tube), CT scans, bone scans, lumbar punctures, etc…nothing that any 14 year old should ever have to endure. Michelle and the family live in a very tightly knit community, and it was a bunch of the ladies from the neighbourhood that organized this phenomenal party. I’d say there were easily 250 people, tons of amazing raffle prizes and a really great pot luck dinner. There were even a few people that offered to shave their heads to raise money…one guy raising over $1100 on his own!!! To say that it was overwhelming to see how many people turned out to support Meghan is a huge understatement. It was a room filled with love and support and I was very happy to be a part of it. Meghan is at home recovering now, but goes back to Sick Kids almost weekly for chemo and other treatments. I felt completely helpless when this all started and the most I could do was hang out at the hospital and keep them company. One day on my way to the hospital I stopped at a little store and got Isabelle a t-shirt made. A picture of Meghan and Isabelle in her “Team Meghan” shirt was posted on Meghan’s blog, and it was so exciting to show up at the party last night to a ton of people wearing their own “Team Meghan” shirts courtesy of Meghan’s aunt. Isabelle was like a little baby celebrity with everyone coming up to us and commenting that they had seen her on the blog and loved that they could also have their own “Team Meghan” shirt. She got so much attention and was so excited about the whole thing she was up until 11pm… so I got a bit of a sleep in Saturday morning – yay!!!
Here is the picture of Meghan and Isabelle that started the “Team Meghan” mania – and a picture of Isabelle with Michelle and Joe at the party last night. (yeah, Izzie doesn't look happy...but it was WAYYYY past her bedtime!!) Because of Meghan’s low white blood cell count and the increased risk of infection she stayed home. But I'm sure she would have been overwhelmed at the amount of people there just for her.
So stay tuned friends and family…Steve and I are going to be organizing a fundraiser for the end of February. It’s going to be a 5k fun run and 2k walk to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And I don’t want to hear any excuses…you should all be able to walk 2k…if you can’t…start training!!