Check out this new and very touching video above called “A Day in the Life of Sara Jean“. Sara is just 6 years old and she’s been fighting cancer for half of her life. In fact, she’s one of the 4,000 kids in Ontario who are battling cancer.

Just days after Sara Jean’s 3rd birthday, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Treatments included 6 weeks of radiation plus 46 weeks of chemotherapy where her hair fell out as she explains in the above video. Also a surgery was done to remove muscle from her forearm resulting in the cancer going into remission. The cancer came back in 2012 and she’s had to deal with a new round of cancer treatments with maintenance chemotherapy likely for the rest of the year.

But even though she’s 6, you can see in the video how brave she is.

For families like Sara Jean’s, the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) helps to lessen the financial hardship by covering the costs of food while at the hospital, childcare for siblings (Sara Jean has two young siblings) and accommodation when they have to travel for treatment.

Here’s photos of Sara Jean I took at the recent POGO gala where she was the belle of the ball.

6 year old cancer patient, Sara Jean, dancing and mingling with guests at POGO

6 year old cancer patient, Sara Jean, dancing and mingling with guests at POGO

6 year old cancer patient, Sara Jean with a POGO board member

6 year old cancer patient, Sara Jean with a POGO board member

Click the image at the top of this page to watch the video and consider making a donation to POGO to help kids just like Sara Jean.

ABOUT POGO
The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) was founded in 1983 by a group of pediatric oncologists to champion childhood cancer care and control. As the representative voice of the childhood cancer community, POGO works to ensure that all of Ontario’s children have equal access to state-of-the-art diagnosis, treatment and required ancillary services. We also aim to make certain that Ontario’s children have the greatest prospects for survival with an optimal quality of life.

POGO’s mission is to continually drive improvements across the continuum of children’s cancer care in Ontario by:

  1. ensuring access to and availability of the absolute best cancer care
  2. providing essential support for children, survivors and families
  3. conducting childhood cancer research
  4. providing ongoing professional development opportunities

To learn more about POGO or to donate, please visit pogo.ca

Video by Phil Connell, Alter Ego, Married To Giants and Tattoo Sound + Music.

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