Editorâs note: As of Oct. 30, 2019, Lauren Glynn is back in remission after getting successful CAR T-cell therapy. âWe are so thankful that Lauren continues to feel well and are very hopeful that this CAR T is her cure,â her mom says.
Sept. 23, 2019 — Four small friends who met in the hospital while getting cancer treatment are back together for a fourth year of group photos. And the message on their shirts — âNever EVER Give Upâ — carries an emotional new meaning.
Chloe, Lauren, McKinley, and Ava — now 5 to 6 years old — enjoyed a day of hugs, laughs, and playtime earlier this month at Johns Hopkins All Childrenâs Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL. Thatâs where they met in 2016. During their time there, they posed for a spur-of-the-moment group picture in tutus, and itâs become an annual tradition for them.
Today, Chloe, McKinley, and Ava are in remission and doing well, a spokesperson for the hospital says. But Laurenâs cancer came back.
This year the four friends spent their reunion in Laurenâs hospital room at All Childrenâs, where she returned for treatment.
They wore matching shirts that Avaâs mother made, white tees glittering with a mantra inspired by the girlsâ own words: âNever EVER Give Up.â
âI heard all the girls start saying it around the time last year when we found out Lauren had relapsed,â says Laurenâs mother, Shawna Glynn. She and her three fellow moms talked and agreed the message was a perfect fit. âThe girls have never given up on each other,â Glynn says.
And their reunion this year lifted everyoneâs spirits, she says: âLauren was sitting on the bed when the girls walked in and she was just bouncing up and down because she was so excited to see them. I wanted to pause time and just live in that moment.â
Lauren, a smart and strong-willed 6-year-old who loves to paint, has one of the most common types of childhood cancer: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Itâs the same kind Ava and McKinley had. It affects the blood and bone marrow, and it often shows up between the ages of 2 and 4. It can bring on symptoms such as bone and joint pain, weakness, and unexplained weight loss. Doctors usually treat it with chemotherapy, and it can be cured. But for 15% to 20% of kids who get treatment for ALL, the cancer will come back.
After Laurenâs cancer returned, she got a bone marrow transplant and more chemo earlier this year. She also got a type of immunotherapy treatment that her family hopes will send her disease back into remission: CAR T-cell therapy. Doctors take a type of white blood cell, called T cells, from your blood and change them in a lab, making them more precise at finding and attacking cancer cells. Once doctors put these powered-up cells back into your blood, the cells can latch onto cancer cells and destroy them.
Lauren has felt âreally wellâ since she got the therapy, Glynn says. With her treatment complete, sheâll continue to get regular follow-up care and checkups at the All Childrenâs outpatient clinic.
âShe has paved her own path, and we hope after everything she has been through in the last 3 1/2 years, that this CAR T is her cure,â her mom says.
Last year, when Lauren, Chloe, Ava, and McKinley were all in remission, they donned shirts that said âSurvivor.â
The year before that, they dressed up in gold tutus and wore shirts that said âBrave,â âStrong,â âFearless,â or âWarrior.â
And while they were all going through treatment in 2016, they dressed in shirts that said âStraight Outta Chemo.ââ
Back then, the friendships their parents formed were also invaluable.
âI was so lucky to have met this amazing group of moms early on in Lauren’s leukemia diagnosis,â Glynn says. âI think that your instinct is to close yourself off to the world, because you think that no one could possibly understand what you are going through. But if you strike up a conversation with another parent on the oncology floor, you will quickly realize that you are not alone.â
âWe quickly bonded on the hospital floor and in clinic,â says Chloeâs mother, Jacquelyn Grimes. âWe networked with other parents and became a support group for each other. We compared stories, treatments, issues, and ideas.â
âItâs a much easier road when you have that support,â Glynn says.
WebMD senior medical director and pediatrician Hansa Bhargava, MD, agrees. âFinding a community is so important in helping kids to get better,â she says. âThese friendships really make a difference in emotional healing and recovery from serious disease.â
Source: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/lymphoma/features/friends-childhood-cancer?src=RSS_PUBLIC