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Thank you Beeton fire fighters!

June 19, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:

Our daughter, Sarah Hamby, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on October 13th, 2012 at just 3 years 10 months old. Her oncologist determined the best plan of action was to treat her with 28 months of chemotherapy. She has finished 20 months of her treatment and has eight months remaining.

At the beginning, her treatment was so intense, she could not be in crowds, such as a school setting, missing all of junior kindergarten. She lost her hair, she dealt with many infections, and even mouth sores. She has endured numerous needle pokes, many different types of chemotherapy, frequent spinal taps, many blood transfusions, and many medications to help counterbalance the many negative effects of her chemotherapy. She had a lot of hospital admissions from October 2012 throughout all of 2013.

Sarah is in the last part of her treatment which is not as intense as the first part. Due to this, she is allowed to go to school when she is healthy and her blood counts are high. Although she has had a large number of absences this school year, she loves going to school and just being a regular 5 year old. She is in Senior Kindergarten.

Even though she still has daily chemotherapy, regular spinal taps, and frequent hospital visits with needle pokes and IV chemo, she is finished with the chemo that causes hair loss, so she is happy to no longer be bald. Her last day of treatment will be in February 2015. Even though that is the end of chemo, she will be monitored for years for the short term and long term effects of the chemotherapy on her body.

On Saturday, June 7th, our Beeton volunteer firefighters held a fundraiser golf tournament at the Ponderosa Golf and Country Club to support our family. We weren’t sure what to expect with the day, but everything was amazing! There was a great turn out at the golf tournament, over 200 golfers with many corporate sponsors, a silent auction with terrific items, and food provided by Foodland. Canadian Blood Services were there to make appointments for local blood clinics and to take swabs for their bone marrow data base. Once we arrived, the firefighters gave Sarah and her sister each a doll which they love! It brought huge smiles to their faces that did not go away for the entire day. The firefighters let the girls check out their fire trucks and took them for rides on a golf cart. Following the events at the Ponderosa, the fun continued at the Muddy Waters Tavern. Everyone who showed up got to take home a great present plus a free drink and wings.

We want to thank the Beeton Firefighters for an amazing show of kindness and support. We really appreciate everything you have done for us. It must have taken many hours of your personal time to organize such a big event. Thank you so much! We also want to thank everyone who contributed to this fundraiser. Thank you to The Nottawasaga Foundation and Walton Development Management for your huge donations. Thank you to WD Potato, Muddy Water Hotel, Milligan Fuels, McGoey Brothers, Animal Hospital of Beeton, The Jackson Place, The Trophy Place, and to everyone else who contributed. Thank you to Jamie MacNeil for being the main organizer and helping us out. My family is overwhelmed at receiving such support! It will certainly come in handy as we deal with expenses related to Sarah’s cancer treatment. We will definitely be making the Beeton Firefighters’ annual golf tournament a family tradition!

The Beeton Hamby Family – Gillian, Mark, Kiarra, and Sarah

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