On May 2nd, 2015, My Lainee-girl decided that she wanted to donate her long, beautiful, curly, blonde hair to, ‘kids who are sick’. Fast forward to September 22nd, 2015 when we learned that Lainee was indeed a, ‘kid who was sick’; my Lainee was diagnosed with cancer. Her illness escalated so fast. Six days after we arrived at the hospital, Lainee was intubated and spent the next several months in a drug-induced coma. Lainee went to bed with a full head of thick hair, and woke up bald and her body was littered with cords and tubes everywhere.

I fully intended on shaving my head with my girl. Bald twins! The care team, however, cautioned me to wait until she was consious, so that Lainee’s Mom being bald wouldn’t be an additional thing that she would have to adjust to. I listened to the team, and I waited until she was out of the coma.

After spending weeks upon weeks in bed, your muscles atrophy. When Lainee finally woke up, I laid in the hospital bed next to her, and I asked her if she wanted to be, ‘little baldytwins’, with Mom. I will never forget how Lainee raised her arm; shaky and weak. She picked up a piece of my long, thick hair, and said, “Mommy, your hair is so beautiful. Don’t ever cut it”.

Lainee battled her disease for two years. She suffered, she thrived, she fought; she lived. We donated Lainee’s body to PPB research after she passed away. This was a devastatingly difficult decision to make, but Lainee wanted to be a teacher when she grew up; and who are we to get in the way of her dreams.

Since the day that Lainee asked me in her hospital bed never to cut my hair, I have kept my hair extremely long, and dedicated my time and money to keeping it healthy and beautiful, just for her. I am finally ready to break my promise to my sweet, precious Lainee-girl, and donate my hair to, ‘kids who are sick’, in order to raise the much-needed funding for research. PPB is an incredibly rare cancer that affects children six and under. It is a lung cancer that grows in the bodies of children who have never smoked a single cigarette. We don’t want Lainee’s short life to have been for nothing. We want to honor her dream of becoming a teacher, and continue to support the PPB research team in continuing to help, ‘kids who are sick’. For them, for her, and for us.

Please join us in raising funds towards PPB Cancer research so that we don’t have to lose anymore Lainee’s of the world.

 Gratefully,

 Lainee’s Mom