Hannah’s Heros is an event where the Cayman Community comes together to raise funds for the St. Baldricks Foundation. The Foundation funds research into children’s cancer. Prior to the event people from all over Cayman, raise funds to have their head shaved during the event – The Big Shave.
About the Charity:
We are committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. For more information visit www.StBaldricks.org
Their Story: The Meeson family’s cancer journey began in the Summer of 2012. Following a visit to their paediatrician to discuss Hannah’s worsening balance issues, within a few hours a CT scan revealed a tumour on Hannah’s brain and she was airlifted to Miami for surgery and later diagnosed with anaplastic medulloblastoma.
For the next two years Hannah underwent treatment at MD Anderson Children’s Cancer hospital in Houston, Texas and spent only a few weeks at her home in the Cayman Islands. She completed six weeks of proton radiation with sedation to her whole brain and spine, followed by six months of triple drug chemotherapy. In early April 2013, Hannah’s MRI showed disease progression and she began another triple drug chemotherapy treatment. After nine cycles of the new combination of drugs, the MRI in May 2014 showed that the tumors had disappeared and the disease was finally stable.
With no known protocols to follow that work for relapse, Hannah’s treatment was little more than an educated guess. Funding is desperately needed for new trials, new drugs and treatment options for all paediatric cancers. “All of the drugs Hannah has been given were developed for adults, mostly over 25 years ago, and many of them not even approved for use in children.”
The long term affects and damage from all the chemotherapy and radiation is permanent, horrific and endless. While Hannah remains stable with no evidence of disease, she undergoes daily therapy for all her disabilities, in the hope that at the very least, she will walk again without assistance. Despite the gruelling treatment, being away from home, school and her friends for so many months, Hannah never complained and still manages to smile and laugh.
The Meesons established Hannah’s Heroes in 2013 to support the work of the St Baldrick’s Foundation because “kids like Hannah are worth fighting for.”
lead videographer: Janet Jarchow
second shooters: Karl Nyyssonen (http://www.nyyssone.com/) & Noah Hollins
second shooters: Karl Nyyssonen (http://www.nyyssone.com/) & Noah Hollins