My Links

May 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

On August 7th and 8th, Kevin and I will once again ride the Pan Mass Challenge in honor of our son, Harry. We will ride on the Pedals for Pediatrics team, which raises funds to support pediatric oncology programs and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital. We greatly appreciate your support of our past rides and hope you'll consider supporting us again this year.

This year's ride is extremely important to us. In December, our son, Harry, suffered serious and life threatening complications to remove a new tumor growth. Harry has been battling a brain tumor for nearly 5 years and sadly, despite our hope and belief that he was finally in remission, the tumor returned in October. During surgery to remove this new growth, Harry suffered a brain bleed resulting in a pseudo aneurysm and small stroke. Despite the long road to recovery, Harry has astounded his team of doctors and all those who cared for him for the 3+ months he was in the hospital. Harry is now walking, in school full time, and expected to make a full recovery from this devastating surgery. Unfortunately, because of the brain bleed, the surgeons were unable to remove all the tumor and Harry will have to undergo experimental treatments in the months ahead to stop the tumor from recurring again.

As you can imagine, riding this year's PMC has new meaning to us. Without the incredible team of doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital Boston and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harry would not be alive. It is also with the incredible support system that Kevin and I have been able to support Harry and provide him the comfort he needs. Kevin and I have directly benefited from many of the programs funded by our PMC team, Pedals for Pediatrics www.pedalsforpediatrics.org. These include parking vouchers (we never realized how expensive it is to park at the hospital week after week), funding the resource rooms where parents and patients can research treatment options as well as access games, toys, and books.

Perhaps most important for Harry, the Pedals for Pediatrics team has also supported a brain tumor bank where researchers use brain tumor tissue samples to learn more about specific brain tumors as well as test various treatment options.  In the months ahead, Harry will directly benefit from this program as specific treatment options are researched and explored to determine how best to stop his tumor from growing again.


These past months have been the most difficult ones we have ever faced and certainly the hardest since Harry was initially diagnosed. Despite what we have been through, Kevin and I have once again felt we have been given a choice. We could sit around each day and ask "why us?" or "why Harry" or we can do something about it so no other family has to go through what we have been through.  On August 7th and 8th, we will be doing something about it as we once again ride the PMC and raise funds to support the Pedals for Pediatrics fund.

We sincerely hope you'll help us make a difference by donating toward our ride. We appreciate your consideration and thank you for your support of our ride and, most importantly, of Harry. To do so, please either making an online gift at www.pmc.org/egifts and use the egift number EG0070 for donations for Eunice's account of KC0177 for donations made to Kevin's account. Alternatively, you may also send a check payable to the PMC to Eunice Groark and Kevin Clark at 29 Poplar Road, Wellesely, MA 02482.

With deepest gratitude,


Eunice and Kevin

Kevin's PMC Total

$11,310

Goal

$10,000

My Progress

My Online Supporters

My Rides