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Neve was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in early September 2007. She has been through many phases of treatment, and is currently in Long Term Maintenance. She entered kindergarten in September 2008, and is enjoying school. Outside of "boring old leukemia" Neve leads a happy and generally healthy existence, and we are optimistic about a cure.

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Sunday, June 14, 2009 7:39 PM, CDT

Make A Wish Update! -- Dear Friends, below is part of a note we sent to the team at Make A Wish Maine after our recent trip to Florida for Neve's Wish. All told, we had a great time, Finn and Neve had a blast, Phil and I were exhausted. We were treated much better than the sweaty tourists from Maine that we were. I don't recommend the path you need to take to access their hospitality, but I can tell you, the Make a Wish team does great things. All our best to all of you for a great summer, and thank you for your continued support, prayers and good thoughts for Neve and our family.

Dear Make A Wish Maine (and all of your supporters)

In case you've been wondering - you do good things! You do wonderful things! Let me tell you why I think so... Our daughter Neve was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) in September 2007, a blow to any family. A cancer diagnosis and treatment is never easy, and Neve's first year of treatment included a lot of transfusions, hospitalizations and emergency room visits, on top of the planned chemotherapy. We have two children - so in addition to what Neve was going through in treatment, her older brother Finn was on the side with the challenge of being the healthy child. We feel very fortunate to have the great team at Maine Children's Cancer Program and The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital in our back yard - they have supported and treated Neve -and each of us throughout this journey. We now also feel very fortunate to have experienced what the great team at Make A Wish can do. Our trip was awesome, every detail was coordinated. Finn and Neve LOVED the limo ride to the airport - we live about 2 miles away so it was pretty funny to take a limo there. Karen and Elinor, our special MAW friends were there to see us off and greeted us when we returned. Everywhere we went on our flights down, people saw our Make A Wish shirts and were so nice - Finn said "these are magic shirts, mom"! Neve and Finn got to check out the cockpit of the airplane and even got a round of applause and welcome from Jet Blue and all of the passengers on our flight. A Make A Wish greeter met us in Orlando and whisked us through the airport to our rental car. Discovery Cove was incredible and both kids could have spent the entire trip in the water if we had let them. And the Dolphin swim and interaction with Roxy (the dolphin) -was amazing for all of us. We had action packed days at Sea World and Universal and were treated like royalty. Thank you for letting our kids be kids again and just have fun. Thank you for taking care of all the details so we could relax and have fun with our kids. While we are now back in Maine, and Neve's treatment continues and life goes on- we have some amazing memories of a wonderful family adventure thanks to you. Thank you Make A Wish, Maine!!!!! -Gretchen Spann, mom of Neve and Finn Cawley and spouse of Phil Cawley

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