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In March, Annette had the honor of singing a solo for her high school senior show. She chose to sing “I Was Here”, a song recorded by the group Lady Antebellum and others. The lyrics for the chorus start with “I wanna do something that matters – say something different – something that sets the whole world on its ear – I wanna do something better with the time I’ve been given.” She considers it her personal anthem.

29-year-old Ricky Smith, Jr. has had

Kellie was diagnosed with

My mom is a pharmacist and I currently attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, I was shocked and sad but I wasn’t scared.

19-year-old Anna Sobon had been a typical college sophomore, active and full of plans about making her dreams come true.
When she began to get increasingly tired, she  thought it was due to her hectic schedule or maybe some lingering after-effects of her bout with mononucleosis the previous summer. Even as her strength was dwindling, Anna stayed determined to keep up with her daily routines while she waited for her symptoms to simply go away.

At the age of 3, I became ill with a rare blood disorder. I was bruising easily, and my platelet count was dangerously low. I was diagnosed to have ITP, had my spleen removed, and thought I was cured. However, my disease was either dormant or morphing into something else. My symptoms recurred with pregnancy, and after my second child was born, my disease was never dormant again.

It was early April of 2015 when I started getting headaches, weakness and abnormal heart rates simultaneously whenever I exerted myself. Stairs became a nemesis, as I could feel myself about to faint whenever I reached my apartment on the third floor. I thought that now would be a good time to visit the doctor. There I had blood work done and a few hours later they called and told me to go to the ER immediately.  “So…I shouldn’t go hiking right now?” I joked, despite the weakness in my legs.

This is the story of my beautiful granddaughter Annie, who celebrated her 13th birthday this April 2014.  It’s also the story of Annie’s big sister Katherine, as well as of her mother Melissa, and her father, Tom (my son). 

When my husband and I picked Annie up from pre-school in December of 2005, we noticed bruises on her arms and legs. Melissa looked over her body closely that evening and counted 14 bruises! She immediately took Annie to her pediatrician, who took one look at her and said, “Take her to The City of Hope.”