Our Small Miracles program provides customized experiences or gifts for children who are undergoing cancer treatment.  These Small Miracles are created by members of Team Endure to Cure who have made a choice to push themselves beyond their perceived limitations to reach the finish line of endurance events of all kinds.  They never ask why they are doing what they do because they know why.

Our latest Small Miracle was created courtesy of the fundraising effort of Team E2C member, Henning Voss.  In April 2013, he will challenge himself to complete what is dubbed as the “The Toughest Footrace on Earth.”  That footrace is called the Marathon des Sables and is a 150-mile jaunt across some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain in the Sahara Desert.  As if those conditions are not harsh enough, he will be required to carry all of his gear, sleep outside at night, and his primary luxury will be getting water rations at various checkpoints along the route.  Temperatures generally range from the 30s at night to a scorching 130 during the day.  He will cross gargantuan sand dunes, a variety of terrain, and likely endure punishing sand storms.  It surely is no small feat for a man, but neither is fighting cancer for a young child–and that is why he runs.

His fundraising effort helped us create our most recent Small Miracle for Jenna, a quiet 12-yr-old girl who has been fighting a form of brain cancer (apendymoma)–first diagnosed when she was just 2, and is now battling a relapse July 2012.  Jenna’s cancer was discovered when trying to find an answer as to why she was experiencing abnormally low energy levels and headaches.   A series of doctor’s visits ruled out the basics like flu and strep throat, but eventually she got an MRI which revealed a tumor.  Within days she was recovering from surgery at Tufts Medical Center.

When Jenna’s parents found Endure to Cure, they told us that Jenna’s favorite movie was The Lion King and that she had always wanted to see the Broadway production of the motion picture.  As Jenna fights through her relapse, they thought this was the perfect opportunity to make it a reality.  We worked with her family to present this to her as a surprise which we did after one of her recent treatments.  We gave her a plush Simba, hooked her family up with some E2C gear, and with tickets in hand, we let her know that her bags were already packed and after the hospital visit she would be off to New York to see The Lion King, complete with a backstage tour.

Like the show has been for nearly two decades, Jenna’s Small Miracle was a hit.  Her mother had this to share: “We are on the train back from NYC and we are so thankful for our fantastic weekend.  We are SO appreciative for the tickets and our special backstage tour and we cannot thank those enough who contributed to make this moment a reality for us.  The Lion King has always been very special for Jenna…and it was even more magical to experience that show as a family.  It’s always great when we can do things that help Jenna to feel like she is “normal.”

Absolutely!  That is why we are here and we are glad we could help. 🙂

A very special thank you to all of our selfless donors and volunteers who contributed to help make this Small Miracle a reality.  If you are interested in becoming somebody’s hero today, click here to learn more!