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 Makenna rocks!

 Pre-teen Sweetheart Melts Hearts of Local Music Enthusiasts

as She Battles Cancer 

by Suzanne Corey

 It was the week before Christmas when Makenna Renard’s family noticed the

bruising.

The bruises seemed to come with the slightest touch and were often very bad.

Then, she started to lose energy. The bubbly, sassy, fun loving, seventh-grade

cheerleader seemed to begin to fade. Immediately, her mother, Karen, took her to

get tested.

“I was at Legoland with Makenna and her twin 4-year-old brothers when they

told me the news,” said Karen. “I remember we had just gotten there and there

were so many people around us. When I answered the phone they told me, ‘youneed to bring Makenna here now. Not tomorrow. Not later. Now.’ I remember

everything at that moment stood perfectly still. I felt like I was in a fog. I couldn’t

breathe. I started hyperventilating. It was horrible.”

That was the day that Karen learned that her only daughter had acute myeloid

leukemia (AML), an aggressive cancer that starts inside bone marrow and develops

quickly, so quickly that doctors gave Makenna 6 to 9 months to live.

“I felt like they made a mistake. I felt like they would say ‘just kidding’ after they

told me,” said Karen. “I felt like they had messed up. It was completely mind-

blowing.”

Time began to race by for Karen, family and friends, yet it felt like the whole

world had stopped as they watched Makenna undergo her first round of chemotherapy.

“We started on Jan. 4th,” she said. “We were all so hopeful that we got it out of 

her blood. She lost all her hair, she was so sick. Whatever you could get, she did,

hives, high fever, and rashes. But, it didn’t work. I had to be the one to tell her that

it didn’t do anything, after all that,” said Karen, the emotional pain evident in her

voice.

They pursued another round and then a third, but still nothing got better for

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Makenna.

But Karen and her tight circle of supporters refuse to lose hope. So, starting on

March 29, Makenna will begin a pilot study at St. Jude’s Research Hospital in

Tennessee.

Once there, the 45-day treatment — that has only been tried on two other patients

 — will begin. The trial procedure will attempt to take what they call “killer cells”

from Makenna’s parents and put them in Makenna’s body to try and have them

attack the cancer. If that works, she will then get a bone marrow transplant from

her brother, who is a perfect match.

“I don’t know what happens after that. I don’t even want to ask. This has got to

work,” said Karen. “I don’t care what I have to do or where I have to send her. I

will. I have watched other kids being wheeled out of Rady’s Children’s Hospital and

I collapse and want to throw up.”

 Through the tears and the dark moments Karen is still able to smile, though, when

she thinks about Makenna throughout this horrific experience.

“She’s an amazing kid. Earlier, she had a bone marrow aspiration, where they

basically take something that looks like a hollow ice pick and suck out the bone

marrow juices. Fifteen minutes after surgery, she went to hospital Pilates,” Karensaid proudly. “The doctors and nurses come in and constantly say, ‘I don’t know

how you are doing it, Makenna.’

“My own kid is blowing my mind. She is changing other people’s lives. She gets all

the other kids rallied up. She goes to their rooms when they aren’t feeling well and

says to them, ‘c’mon let’s go play a game or let’s go to school or let’s go hide from

the nurses.’ She’s amazing.”

And her Olive Peirce Middle School teachers, friends and counselors agree

wholeheartedly. OPMS counselor Eileen Tierney has been a constant support to

Karen through counseling, resources and even finding her a babysitter for her

twins. She talks to Karen almost daily and is always on the phone with other parents

and students to keep them up to date about Makenna.

Another support system Karen said she couldn’t live without is fellow parent

Laurie Chambers. The two have daughters the same age but weren’t friends before

the diagnosis.

“She drives kids down to see Makenna, she sells support bracelets before and after

school, she just loves my daughter and she’s amazing,” said Karen. “I don’t know

what I would do without her. I am driving her car right now because mine is in the

shop and she told me, ‘keep it as long as you need — a week, six months,

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whatever.’”

Chambers met Makenna when her daughter invited her to her birthday party,

and she said she just instantly fell in love with the young teen.

“She is so funny,” said Chambers. “I bring carloads of girls down to visit her

weekly and one time we couldn’t go in Makenna’s room because of the risk of 

infections, so we sat outside her window and she did a modeling show for us with

her beanies. At one point, all six of her friends were sitting outside texting her and

she sent them each the same text message saying, ‘don’t tell anyone, but you are my

favorite.’ We were laughing hysterically. Here is this girl who is sick and stuck in

her room, but she is making us laugh and just so full of life.”

Chambers is there for the hard times, too. “Every day it changes for her and that

is really hard,” she said.

Before the next step, there was one surprise waiting for Makenna, a trip to

Orlando followed by a cruise through the Make-A-Wish foundation. Her wish was

to take a cruise, and last weekend that dream came true.

Anyone who would like to help support Makenna may send or bring all card, gifts

or donations to the Ramona Sentinel, 425-A 10th St. Checks may be written to

Karen Renard with “Makenna’s Miracle Fund” in the memo section. Chambers will

pick up the gifts once or twice a week from the Sentinel office. Chambers has also

put jars throughout the community for donations.

We here at Southern Rock Star Magazine are all Praying for Makenna, along with

many Rock and music enthusiasts including, Tom Roeck, Peter Read, Jerry Beasley,

Ben Thompson, Bobby Rogers, Chuck Smith, Gene Posik, Sharpe Dunaway, Chris

Moran, Greg McCuin, Franklin Warfe, Diggit Johnson, Cody Cbum Yancey, Doug

Williams, Mary Holt & Wayne Willems of Arkansas Internet Radio & Little Rock 

Entertainment, There too many People to mention in our friends group, and just

know that we are all praying and pulling for you Makenna! If anyone would like to

add words of encouragement and prayer you may go here and join her fan page at

Hope For Makenna She has amassed nearly 3500 fans around the country, and the

prayers and healing power are flowing to her daily so keep them coming....and

growing in even greater force! Suggest her page to your friends and have them

suggest it to theirs, and so on and so on... For more information, contact Tierney atetierney@ramonausd.net or (760)787-2473. www.southern-rockstar.com