Bengal's Team Sophie

Sophie was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma bone cancer of the cervical spine on March 14, 2022 and our world violently turned upside down. The next day St Jude flew us to Memphis for emergency cervical spine laminectomy surgery. We then spent the next 14 months in Target housing and St Jude Hospital during Sophie's treatment. She endured 14 extremely difficult rounds of harsh chemotherapy, 9 different surgeries with some involving very invasive cervical stabilization, 175 days with a wound vac attached to the back of her neck, 86 days with a full halo brace with 6 rods screwed into her skull, 31 rounds of both photon and cutting edge proton radiation to shrink her tumor, and countless other difficulties along the way. If you were to talk with Sophie today you would never know what a warrior she was during her treatment, only that her hair is a bit short :) She is the sweetest girl you will find and if it weren't for the wonderful support of our family and friends and St Jude and their incredible staff.... lets just say we wouldn't be where we are today. 

 We have adopted St Jude staff into our family and we love to visit them every 3 months for Sophie's scans to make sure the cancer doesn't come back. We never paid for medical bills, housing or travel. They also fed us in housing certain days of the week and gave us money to spend on food every week. St Jude fully understands how to fight super rare cancers and takes care every aspect of family life that you can imagine. It was even more difficult with the uncertainty of Covid and Sophie's body being immunocompromised the majority of the time. We felt so Safe at St Jude and they handled her care so delicately. Sophie loved to play Bingo with the other kids and win toys, go to the art room and constantly did crafts with Target house staff to pass the time while safely in quarantine. 

St Jude is a magical place for us and I just want you to know how special of a place it truly is. I wish that you never have to travel there, but if you do, they are the angels that will take care of your family so you can focus on defeating cancer every day like we did. Please help me support St Jude for the future warriors that will need them!

If you are interested, learn about Sophie's proton radiation at St Jude with this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlj1jWZ6ZaA&t=30s

Let’s cure childhood cancer. Together.