Penelope Jane London
July 6, 2002 - May 19, 2007

Welcome to Penelope's Web Page. It has been created to keep friends and family updated about Penelope and her courageous battle against n-Myc Amplified Stage IV Neuroblastoma (the worst of the worst), which was diagnosed on November 14th, 2003, when she was 16 months old. Neuroblastoma is rare and aggressive childhood cancer of specialized nerve cells called neural crest cells, cells that are involved in the development of the nervous system and other tissues. (For more information about Neuroblastoma, please check the National Cancer Institute's web site at www.cancer.gov/)

Unfortunately, Penelope is currently battling yet another relapse. She has relapsed several times before, each time more aggressively than the last, but amazingly she has been able to beat the beast back into remission or quasi-remission. We're praying for that to happen again this time.

Before her second relapse, she had already endured extensive rounds of multiple chemotherapies, a bone marrow transplant, a 10 hour surgical resection of her tumor, 3 weeks of radiation treatment, 6 months of Accutane, two additional rounds of chemotherapy, two intensive MIBG radiation treatments, countless blood and platelet transfusions, another stem cell transplant, six rounds of experimental oral chemotherapy, and additional experimental treatments. Since her second relapse, she has started treatment again. At this stage, most of the treatments are experimental, and they include oral and i.v. chemotherapy and the many side effects thereof.
We have been told that there is no cure for relapsed neuroblastoma. But she is a warrior and our immediate hope is to get the disease under control and to beat it back into remission.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers in the months ahead. She is our hero!!! Catherine, John, Isabelle (13), Penelope (4) and Oliver (3).

If you would like to make a donation to help find a cure for neuroblastoma, it can be made to The Penelope and Sam Fund. Please visit http://vermontcancer.org/index.php?page=penelope-and-sam for more information. Thank you.


INFORMATION

Journal

Friday, September 19, 2008 1:59 PM CDT

My heart absolutely ached today as I walked through Central Park kicking up the leaves. I could only think of Penelope, of course, and of all her friends who were with her in school, Sylvie, Noah, Morgan, Grey, Cara, Christy and William, and all the others, wondering how they're all doing, and hoping they still remember sweet, sweet Penelope.
Catherine

Read Journal History

E-mail Author: johnl@suttonbrook.com

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