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Thursday, October 13, 2011 - 11:49am

Well the end of Team Hailey events (at least for the forseeable future) went out with a bang.  The Hackin for Hailey Milwaukee golf outing raised approximately $20,000 for the PLGA Foundation and was a blast!!  Thank you again to John Boldt, Adam French, Carolyn Schweitzer and all who participated in making this event a success, including the generous sponsors and golfers. 

Based on the MRI results, it appears we will continue with the current treatment Hailey is on and keep hoping we get more positive response, and most importantly, something better comes along soon.  This treatment has been pretty hard on Hailey for the day or two after.  Not unlike so many of the kids who are battling the side effects of not only the disease itself, but the treatments too. We've just been pretty lucky in the past.

We will continue to post occassional updates to let everyone know how we're all doing.

Monday, October 10, 2011 - 1:03pm

Initial results of the MRI appear to show no growth since last one, and the ventricles are still normal. 

Thursday, October 6, 2011 - 9:36am

We've moved Hailey's MRI up a month. Tomorrow is the day. We have some concerns about what's happening in there because of the slight growth we've seen in the last couple MRI's as well as some minor behavioral things we've seen pop up from Hailey lately.  Not sure what to predict at this point, but we'll post results when we have them. Could be early next week before we know more.

Saturday is the 5th and final Milwaukee Golf outing and the final event we will be doing, at least for the forseeable future.  Looking forward to seeing all of you who are attending.

Friday, August 26, 2011 - 10:00am

It’s a difficult decision, but we’re taking a break from Team Hailey fundraising events for the foreseeable future.  More on that in a moment. 

First, we wanted to thank those who were involved in the ‘Davis Cup’ family golf outing in the Appleton area the other weekend.  The outing raised $4,000 for the PLGA Foundation!!  Thanks so much to those who contributed to and coordinated the event. What a great outcome!

While the battle still rages on and the need is still there, for a variety of reasons it is time to take a break from all Team Hailey sponsored PLGA events.  The Milwaukee ‘Hackin for Hailey’ outing in October will be the last one we do for the foreseeable future (Sign up for the ‘Hackin for Hailey’ Milwaukee golf outing is live on the events tab of our site.  Should be another fun year!!).  Unfortunately, this also means we will NOT be doing the Team Hailey 5k this April either. 

The PLGA Foundation will continue their efforts nationally, and our teamhailey.org website will remain up and running.  We will still read our guestbook regularly and post occasional updates on what’s happening with Hailey and our family in the journal.  And of course anyone who wants to make a tax deductible donation to the PLGA Foundation in the future will still be able to do so from our site at any time.  But at this point in time, after close to 5 years of events and several hundred thousand dollars raised for the PLGA Foundation, it’s just time for a break for all involved with Team Hailey...including many of you!

Please know that PLGA kids and families everywhere thank you, and our family thanks you, from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness, generosity, time, support, and encouragement over the last several years.  We will NEVER be able to express in words how much this has all meant to us.  Those are not just empty words...we truly cannot say it enough.

And the financial support and investment into the PLGA Foundation HAS had a real and tangible effect on the main goal for any of us PLGA families...finding better treatments and a cure!  A fight that continues. 

Please see the summary below of where the funds you have helped raise have gone over the last few years:   

Thanks again for the contributions from so many of you!

 

WHERE HAVE YOUR DOLLARS GONE:

Over the course of the past 4 years, families associated with the Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytoma (PLGA) Foundation and their contributors (including many of you!!) have raised over 6.5 million dollars, funding 5 international researcher/clinician conferences and over a dozen new cutting edge PLGA research projects.

The ultimate goal of these efforts is to identify new, non-toxic, non-invasive treatments, with no side effects or impairments, and a CURE for the children and families who battle these brain tumors.  

 

Projects funded by the PLGA Foundation:

Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  • Founded a dedicated PLGA research Program in 2007
  • Program is driving force in search for causes & treatments
  • Multiple research projects and trials ongoing
  • Funded a full time Clinical Research Position dedicated to PLGA brain tumors

 

New York University, Langone Medical Center

  • Phase II Clinical Trial  of promising new drug Sorafenib

 

Johns Hopkins University

  • Study to determine the process of PLGA tumor growth
  • Discovered the “switch” to turn off tumor growth gene

 

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

  • Project focused on how PLGA’s grow (what feeds them) and what they’re made of

 

Washington University Children’s National Medical Center

  • Project focused on how PLGA’s grow (what feeds them) and what they’re made of

 

University of California, San Francisco

  • Research targeting stem cells in PLGA tumors

 

MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas

  • Studying the makeup (molecular structure) of pediatric astrocytomas

 

University of London

  • Research focused on how PLGA’s grow (what feeds them) and what they’re made of

In addition, the PLGA Foundation has funded numerous national and international conferences and symposiums dedicated to PLGA research, and maybe most importantly, the critical task of raising researcher awareness and interest in the disease and fostering collaboration to cure it.