Christmas 2010

Excerpt from an article by Juliana Keeping, posted on AnnArbor.com 12/23/10
 http://www.annarbor.com/news/cancer-survivor-returns-to-mott-childrens-hospital-to-spread-holiday-cheer/index.php
 

An 8-year-old Ann Arbor girl who spent last holiday season battling cancer returned to Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor on Wednesday. But this year, Mariel Almendras isn't a patient. She visited the hospital to spread some Christmas cheer to other children, delivering cards and Beanie Babies -- presents from not just Mariel but her friends at Ann Arbor's Dicken Elementary, in Cathy Cieglo’s second-grade class.

Mariel's first-grade class at Dicken did the same thing for her last year. The brightly colored batch of cards Mariel brought Wednesday were adorned with stickers and sparkles and candy canes, but more importantly, messages of support like “You’re a really good friend” and “Hope you feel better soon.”  Small gestures like that meant a lot to the Almendras family last year, Mariel’s mother, Gemma, said. 

With a big smile, Mariel handed the cards and toys to Mott staff so they could deliver them to other children receiving cancer treatment. She said presents and cards from her friends when she was sick made her “happy,” and that she’d like to tell kids going through the same thing to feel better. Families caring for loved ones the week before Christmas on the pediatric oncology floor said gestures like Mariel’s really mean something.

Laurie Rodriguez’s daughter Carleigh, 6, has battled neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system, since she was 1 year old.  “If it helps her for a few minutes of the day, to forget the pain, forget why we’re here, it’s great,” Rodriguez, whose family lives near Lapeer, said.

Jennifer Lamont’s son, Cameron, was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer when he was 16. “One in a million kids get the cancer he has,” she said. At Mott, Cameron endured 54 weeks of chemotherapy and radiation and had a grapefruit size tumor removed from his prostate. He also had had a stem cell transplant. Last week the family found out the cancer had come back, and that it isn’t