Alessa’s story, as told by her mother:

Alessa had just turned a year old when the days following her check up started to concern me with her sleeping more than normal. She didn’t want to play or eat, she just wanted to be held. I called the pediatrician to have her take a look at her and they thought that maybe she was anemic with her sleeping so much and wanted to check her out to be sure. After getting her in to see the doctor, she told me that she was really concerned about Alessa. She was thinking two things; either her platelets were out of balance or she had Leukemia! Needless to say, that was not the answer I was expecting. She said either way, we would know within an hour after we took her to the hospital to get blood drawn and to have a bag packed to get ready to go to Kansas City. By the time we got back home from picking big brother up from preschool and getting everyone home for lunch and naps, my phone rang. Alex (Dad) answered my phone and I could tell by his reaction that it wasn’t platelets. After the call was done and he took down all of the information we needed to get her to Children’s Mercy Hospi-tal, we stood there and cried. What else could we do? We immediately packed our bags, got her loaded up and headed to Kansas City. I don’t remember the drive as it was all a big blur and we were in total shock. After getting to the hospital, we knew immediately that we were in the right place and that they were going to take excellent care of our little girl. After 2 ½ long years that seemed to fly by rather slowly, we can now say that she is completely done with her treatment and is back to a normal 4 year old life! We can’t thank the people at Children’s Mercy and the Leuke-mia and Lymphoma Society enough for all of the support they gave us during the most difficult time we had to face in our lives. Thank you!!!

Thank you for being our Hero!

ALESSA