Where to begin?...let’s start with Emma Ann Laverty! Carly and Kelcie’s new baby sister was born on March 1, 2005. In true Laverty fashion she is just beautiful. Carly wrote a paper for her 1st grade class and stated…”My mother doesn’t make ugly babies!” Just minutes old Emma became an organ donor when her umbilical cord blood was saved and preserved by Viacord, in the event that Carly might need a stem cell transplant in the future.

Carly continues to have neuropathic pain. The oncologists think this is from the radiation she received during treatment and it inflamed the sciatic nerve. Carly takes so much pain medicine that it is beginning to affect her stomach. Henni and Roy decided to try a new approach for pain control and Carly now visits an acupuncturist…..it’s too soon to report whether this will help her or not.

Pain, however, has never been a deterrent for Carly…she took three dance classes last year and she and her sister, Kelcie, were outstanding in the year-end recital! Around the neighborhood Cartwheeling-Carly and her sister ride their bikes, swim, have sleep-overs all the normal “girlie” things….and pain takes a back seat. It is amazing how Carly toughs-it-out! She is and will always be our “Warrior Princess.”

Carly’s dad, Roy, is training for the Pan-Mass Challenge again this year. This grueling 194 mile, two day, bike ride is the largest single fundraiser for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Our goal is twofold…to show our appreciation to D-F for the wonderful care that Carly received and to bring public awareness to childhood sarcoma cancer. We don’t tell folks that Carly had cancer…we tell them she had a sarcoma, namely Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma, which makes up to less than 1% of all cancers. Roy will be wearing biking shirts signed by the cancer-survivors in our family and those we have met along the way. Roy’s goal is double what he raised last year, $6000 and he has almost reached it.

Fourteen y/o Michael Hartley is doing just great. Michael suffered a malignant brain tumor on the night of our Relay For Life last year. He is home, going to school and beginning to use a walker. Michael has probably got the best attitude I have ever seen…Positive, Positive, POSITIVE!!!!

Henni is busy with her girls and volunteering. She and Roy’s mother take Carly to her Boston clinic appts. And she spends the reat of her time ferrying the girls to all their activities.

Unfortunately our online Yahoo support group for Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma keeps growing. It is so important to bring awareness to Carly’s cancer. The only way any research will be done is by getting the word out to the researchers and those who donate toward cancer research. The magnetic ribbons that you see on the back of cars can be purchased for Sarcoma and Childhood cancer. Anyone who wishes to donate to the sarcoma or childhood cause can e-mail me at mimi-olsson@comcast.net and I will send you the links to these web sites.