For Young Survivor, Lemonade Stand Is A Way to Give Back

Carolyn Coveney seems like any other five year old girl. On a sunny afternoon painting in her backyard, the only thing that indicates the battle she has been through is the yellow bandana she is wearing, covering up her still-sparse hair. Carolyn is a five year old cancer survivor.

With the help of her family, Carolyn is hosting a lemonade stand on June 12, as part of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a fundraiser to support pediatric cancer research.

As Carolyn works painting the lemonade stand, her mother Jennifer Click, stands by. She talked about when she first found out that her daughter was sick.

The symptoms didn’t seem serious at first. There was some nausea, and a noticeable hardness in her daughter’s belly. Acting more out of habitual caution than immediate concern, she took her daughter to the doctor. That was when the nightmare began.

On January 15, 2003 Carolyn entered Georgetown University Hospital with a large tumor in her abdomen. Tests would show the tumor as being stage IV Neuroblastoma, an advanced stage of an uncommon malignant cancer, often found in children under the age of five.

In the weeks ahead, Click would come to experience the life changing effect that comes from having a child with cancer. She was faced with the prospect of constant and extended visits to the hospital, her daughter’s chemotherapy, and the possibility that, even after years of treatment, the illness could still take Carolyn’s life.

"I remember waking up in the middle of the night and wishing they would come in and tell me they had made a huge mistake,” said Click.

But as the she started to familiarize herself with her daughter’s condition Click knew that there was no mistake. Neuroblastoma is an unusual cancer. It is difficult to identify because the symptoms, including fever and nausea, are often mistaken for more common illnesses. In infants the cancer is sometimes diagnosed and then vanishes without any treatment.

For those children, like Carolyn, for whom the cancer entrenches itself, it becomes a lifetime fight for survival. The American Cancer Institute states that stage IV Neuroblastoma has a two year survival rate of only 20%. Click added that even after the cancer has gone into remission there is always a chance that it will show up again later.

Despite the grim outlook Click refused to let it stand in the way of her daughter’s life.

On January 25, Carolyn started receiving chemotherapy. While the treatment was considered successful in beginning to break down the tumor, Carolyn started feeling sick upon arriving home from the hospital. Less than two days after coming home, Carolyn was readmitted to the hospital with a fever. In the subsequent days her immune system crashed as a result of the chemotherapy, leaving her septic. Carolyn was moved to the PICU and received a barrage of five different antibiotics, in order to ward off infections that were threatening her life.

After Carolyn recovered, her mother decided to take advantage of new research being done in combating Neuroblastoma. She got Carolyn admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKC) in New York, under the care of Dr. Brian Kushner. At MSKC Carolyn was able to receive new treatments involving Monoclonal Antibodies, a new cancer treatment that identifies and targets specific cancer cells.

At Sloan Kettering, the enormity of what her daughter was facing sank in. “You walk in and…there’s all these bald kids with IV poles,” said Click. She kept thinking, “I do not want to do this.”

Under the care of Dr. Brian Kushner, Carolyn’s tumor was removed in an 11 hour surgery, and she began receiving the antibody treatment.

Over the entire period of her treatment at MSKC, Carolyn underwent the surgery, three cycles of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and countless antibody treatments.

Now, eighteen months after starting treatment Carolyn is NED (No Evidence of Disease) and has returned to school. On Memorial Day she performed with her dance class. She sees the Lemonade stand as a way to give other kids the chance that she had in combating the deadly disease.

The motivation behind Carolyn’s stand came from her father, Gordon Coveney. The parents of children around the country suffering from pediatric cancer have formed a tight knit group that communicates about the progress of their children, the latest cancer research, and fundraising programs. Coveney and Click heard about Alex’s Lemonade Stand from this network of patients and parents. They saw it as a grassroots way for them to get involved in curing pediatric cancer. Coveney jumped on the idea to hold a stand in Falls Church and Carolyn lit up at the idea.

The stands are a lesson in the power of one voice to stir a movement. They were started by little girl suffering from Neuroblastoma. Alexandra Scott, a cancer patient from the age of one, founded the stands after three years of suffering from the disease. She wanted to hold the stand to help fund the research that she, and her fellow patients, were relying on, to find hope for their future.

Together with her parents and friends, Alex hosted the lemonade stand in July of 2000. The results dwarfed their predictions raising $2,000, all of which went to funding cancer research at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Since then, the stand's popularity has skyrocketed. Over the past three years they have raised over $200,000 to fund pediatric cancer research.

Alex’s website claims that this year on June 12, there will be around 300 stands in nearly every state as well as Canada.

Click talked about the importance of raising money for the cause. She said that only 3% of the budget from the American Cancer Society goes to funding pediatric cancer research.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand also stresses the growing problem of childhood cancer. It says that cancer is the leading cause of disease related deaths in children under the age of 15 and that cancer among adolescents is growing faster than any age group under 65.

Click emphasized the cause as being bigger than statistics. “One of the worst things you’ll ever hear is when your four year old child looks at you and says, ‘I have cancer,’” said Click.

After coming through her daughter’s cancer Click has become a lifetime advocate of cancer research. “I feel like I need to do this because there’s a lot of people who can’t,” she said. “Something good needs to come of it.” On June 12 there will be two Alex’s Lemonade Stands in Falls Church. Carolyn will be at the Giant in Falls Plaza from 9:00am to 4:00pm and Alex’s cousins, Jack, Ellen, and Sam Selby, Falls Church residents, will be manning a stand in front of Stacey’s Coffee Shop, 709 W. Broad St, from 12:00pm to 5:00pm.