Paris High School National Honor Society recently raised money in honor of Marlee Pack to be donated to St. Baldrick’s Foundation which is a volunteer-powered charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long, healthy lives.
Marlee was only 8 years old on April 10, 2015, when she learned she had Rhabdomyosarcoma, a malignant, soft-tissue cancer in her left foot. Her left foot and part of her lower leg was amputated at the end of April. She had nine months of chemotherapy treatments and finished her last treatment on Feb. 9, 2016. Marlee is a wonderful, sweet, caring, unselfish young lady that has not let the horrible disease of pediatric cancer stop her.
NHS students wanted to do something to honor Marlee and to bring awareness of pediatric cancer to the students of PHS. Information was announced on Fridays such as 175,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year; less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute's budget is solely dedicated to childhood cancer research; in the last 20 years, only three new drugs have been approved that were specifically developed to treat children with cancer; before they turn 20, about 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will have cancer; more children are lost to cancer in the U.S. than any other disease; and the statistics could go on and on.
PHS students donated $1 on Fridays to wear a hat throughout the day and raised $285 to help find a cure. A check has been sent to St. Baldrick’s Foundation in Marlee’s honor.
Marlee lives in Colorado but her maternal grandparents live here and her cousin, Katy Jameson, works at Central Office for Paris ISD. For more information about St. Baldrick’s Foundation visit their website at http://www.stbaldricks.org and you can follow Marlee’s story at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marleepack.
Pictured are Caitlin Simpson (NHS Project Service Manager) Jake Ensey (member), Chandler Bawcum (member), Keith Hall (member), and Shikah Prakash (NHS President​)
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