Like any other 9-month-old baby, Lucy loves cuddling with her mommy and giggling with her big sister. What sets Lucy apart is that she has leukemia. “About five months ago, we took her to the hospital with what seemed to be an upset tummy,” recalls her mom, Kenda Morado of South City. But what Morado and husband Josh Bacott hoped was a minor flu bug turned out to be acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer that crowds out normal bone marrow cells and spreads to other organs. “Her oncologist told us if we hadn’t brought her in when we did, she would have suffered significant organ damage and may not have survived.”
Today, Lucy spends most of her time in the hospital, enduring multiple rounds of chemo administered via surgically implanted tubes. “She’s never home for more than a couple of weeks at a time,” Kenda says. “It’s scary, but she’s a trooper. She keeps us strong.”
Leukemia can strike anyone at any age, but children are especially vulnerable. Leukemia and lymphoma are the leading causes of death by cancer in young people under the age of 20. But thanks to research supported by Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for blood cancers and improving quality of life for patients and their families, the tide is turning. “Pediatric leukemia now has a 91 percent survival rate, up from 3 percent in the 1960s,” says Debbie Kersting, executive director of LLS Gateway Chapter.
But much remains to be done. “Every four minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer; every 10 minutes, someone dies,” Kersting says. Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, now in its 26th year, is a major fundraising campaign that supports research, information for families and medical professionals, and services and financial aid for patients. Trained by certified coaches, TNT participants at every skill level compete in national and local marathons, triathlons and bike races, raising money for LLS through sponsorships. It’s the world’s largest and most successful endurance sports charity program, with more than 577,000 athletes nationwide raising more than $1.3 billion since the program began.
All athletes train and compete for an Honored Hero, a local blood cancer patient or survivor. This year, baby Lucy is among the heroes whose stories motivate TNT athletes to dig deeper, run faster and cycle harder. These heroes are particularly inspiring to a very special group of TNT participants: Moms in Training, a new LLS initiative. “MIT is a group of mothers, including Lucy’s aunt, Lezlie Bacott, who’ve joined together to get in shape, support moms like Kenda and help fight cancer,” Kersting explains.
Lucy has a long road ahead, but she and her family are taking it one step at a time. “No child deserves what Lucy’s going through, and no mom deserves to see her child suffer,” Morado says. “TNT’s Moms in Training won’t stop running, swimming and cycling until there’s a cure for leukemia.”
Photo by Chris Files Photography