Patient Stories: Will Lacey

As an infant Will Lacey was diagnosed with metastatic cancer and after 8 rounds of chemo and surgery his family thought they could start a life with their child.  Sadly his cancer did not go away and shortly after his second birthday his doctors told his family that Will was incurable. 

Will was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma (NB) which is a particularly deadly pediatric tumor.  Will has received his care at Children's Hospital and Dana Farber in Boston, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence Rhode Island, The Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts in Boston, and Vermont Children's Hospital in Burlington Vermont.  Neuroblastoma is a very stubborn disease where most kids have a very poor prognosis at diagnosis. There is no cure for this disease if it comes back after initial treatment so families are forced to travel to find options and raise money to help fund research if they want to see their children survive.  Will has been receiving chemotherapy non stop since his diangosis in March of 2005.

So if you ask us today how Will is doing the anser is "GREAT!".

If you ask us "What is Will's prognosis?," then the answer you'll get is anything but great.

The answer is that this tumor will eventually kill him - that is the current reality of relapsed neuroblastoma - but it does not have to be the future.

How do we save Will and kids like him?

The families of those afflicted must do all they can to organize fundraising events and ask you for help.  Your help enables them to get enough money into the hands of the researchers to create more clinical options for these kids so that they have another chance at life - another chance to hope. 

Hope for a future where these children are a part of it and not simply a memory of a child taken from this world.