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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, August 15, 2008 11:48 AM CDT Hi,
Just a quick summer update. It is so hard to approach this website and make an entry but I am so grateful to the people that still follow the website and think about Penelope. She is in my every thought and missing her is something I feel almost every time I inhale.
As for our family, Oliver is having a great summer. He has been in a baseball camp in NYC which he loves and just went to a one week camp at our beach house where we were on vacation. Oliver was very proud to be picked up and dropped off on a school bus. I have a great photo of a beaming Oliver as we watched him come off the school bus one day. Oliver loves to swim at our beach house and I know Penelope would be so proud of his ability in the water. She loved her brother so much and he certainly loves her. He talks about her and ask me and Catherine what she is doing in heaven at any given moment. He misses her deeply but lives his life to the fullest. He makes us incredibly proud.
Isabelle just got back from being with her dad in California. And we now have a dog that she broght home with her. His name is Ace and he is a Shipoo, which means he is tiny and very cute. Our cats, Charlotte and Flower, are still getting used to the new addition. I think it is terrific and we hope it provides Isabelle with some happiness as she has lobbied us for a dog for many years!
Catherine and I are hanging in there, taking lots of time off from work and "stuff" this summer. I have been playing golf (I saw a "double rainbow" on the golf course last week that made me think of Penelope), teaching myself piano and generally trying to stay busy so that my mind does not always come back to the intense pain that lies below the surface. I have been very active with our charity, Solving Kids' Cancer, where we will be bringing sponsoring several clinical trials before the end of the year. This should provide a bit of "shock therapy" to the pediatric cancer community which operates at a glacial pace. We'll see. I have also gotten to know more amazing cancer kids and their families whom our charity strives to help. Sadly, some of these children have died in the past few months. It breaks what little is left of my heart and inspires me to do something, anything for the kids who are battling cancer today. We must all do more for these wonderful, brave kids.
Well thats basically it. Penelope, you are with me and mommy every second of every day. Mommy and daddy love you as much as is humanly possible. We love you tons!!! Our hearts will always be connected!!!
Catherine and John
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