DanceBlue raises $636,638.58 for Pediactric Oncology

For the third year, our daughter participated in DanceBlue - a great reason to stay up way too late.

The dance marathon has raised more then $2 million over the past five years for the University of Kentucky Children's Hospital Pediactric Oncology unit's Golden Matrix fund. It is also a tangeable demonstration of this generation's community-minded spirit.

This from the Kentucky Kernel:

The clinic helps children like 7-year-old Jillian Smalley. In August of last year, Jillian was diagnosed with lung cancer.Jillian’s struggle is tough, but on Saturday, she stood on stage in front of more than 600 college students with a smile on her face, dancing and spinning.

Jillian’s father, Jerry, said he watched how this event offered support and encouragement, but the effects are felt year round.

“It’s refreshing to know there is someone out there who really cares,” Jerry said. “And this money is helping hire new staff and support research, so it’s just great.”

With appearances from UK head coaches and many athletes, as well as faculty, staff and administration, DanceBlue wasn’t short on star power — especially when it came to the small survivors who where there to dance.

Just as it is crucial to prevent and to kill existing cancer cells, it’s important that children be served with long-term treatment, said Robert Carr. His son, Gavin, was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia.

Carr listed staggering numbers of long-term problems associated with treating cancer, including heart disease, stroke and even new cancers.

The problems arise when cancer patients are too old to be served by pediatric clinics and they are turned over to family physicians who aren’t trained to recognize those problems, Carr said.

That’s not the case at UK.

“(UK) offers follow-up clinics to all of their pediatric cancer patients,” Carr said. “So these kids can have support for the rest of their lives. "DanceBlue offers a lot of funding for that to happen,” Carr said...