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Today Emily is officially 4-years cancer free! Each year taking this milestone cancer free photo just gets even more exciting!

When we brought up the subject of taking the photo this year, Emily said we could take it with one condition:

Lucy had to be in the photo! We ended up taking the photos on Mother’s Day which was the perfect day. Four years ago on Mother’s Day (May 10th, 2012) was the day we found out that the T-cell therapy had worked and that Emily was cancer free!

We were recently asked if we worry less now that she’s four years out from the T-cell therapy. We still worry quite a bit and probably won’t ever stop worrying. Just yesterday we took her to the doctor for an unscheduled visit and blood work. She had some symptoms that by themselves were nothing to worry about, but when there are three or four symptoms together we worry. That hour waiting for blood work results to come back is still just as stressful as it was years ago. Thankfully, Emily says she doesn’t remember much of the difficult times she went through but as parents it seems like it happened yesterday. Since Emily was the first child treated with T-cell therapy she has been in remission the longest, although there are quite a few children treated after her who have also remained in remission for several years with no further treatment needed. Our goal is to keep raising funds for T-cell therapy research so all kids can go home with their parents healthy and happy! As parents we still worry every day that Emily’s health could change but we feel blessed and we are thankful for every day we get to spend with her.

We might have to come up with a new idea for next year’s 5-year cancer free photo since we’ve run out of colorful frames to use :-)

~Tom and Kari