{"id":39957,"date":"2022-09-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelandmark.testsite.cherryroad.news\/2022\/09\/01\/toddlers-leukemia-diagnosis-gathers-support-beyond-hometown\/"},"modified":"2022-09-01T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T10:00:00","slug":"toddlers-leukemia-diagnosis-gathers-support-beyond-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/09\/01\/toddlers-leukemia-diagnosis-gathers-support-beyond-hometown\/","title":{"rendered":"Toddler\u2019s leukemia diagnosis gathers support beyond hometown"},"content":{"rendered":"
DanielleRay <\/b>Item correspondent<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

WEST BOYLSTON – The greater community is rallying around the Finizio family in a big way following 2-year-old Ellie being diagnosed with leukemia at the end ofJune.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community support has been incredible,\u201d said the toddler\u2019s mother, Laura. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming how generous everyone has been. Kind strangers are reaching out sharing resources, money, and thoughtful gifts for Ellie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family has lived in town for two years.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, Aug. 29, more than $39,000 had been raised through a Go-FundMe fund raiser set up by Laura\u2019s two sisters.The fundraiser’s goal is $50,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of this page is to help ease the financial burden this will put on their family,\u201d the information reads. \u201cDonations will be used for Ellie’s medical bills, food, lodging and anything else the family may need to support them through this difficult time. We will be providing updates on this page as we have them.’<\/p>\n

Laura, a teacher at Bumcoat Prep in Worcester, said the money will help support them while she and her husband, Matt, who works for St. Pierre in Worcester, are out of work.<\/p>\n

The family has been at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital in Boston since receiving the devastating news June 29 that Ellie has mixed-phenotype acute leukemia, a rare form of the cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was born with a rare blood condition called neutropenia, which comes with a risk of developing leukemia,\u201d Laura said. \u201cDue to this, she has had annual bone marrow biopsies, and blood work done every three months to monitor her blood counts and watch for anything that may develop. The leukemic cells were found during her routine bloodwork. We were shocked, as she had not shown any signs of not feeling well and had been acting herself.<\/p>\n

‘We are still trying to process and adjust our lives as this is our new reality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Batteryof procedures, tests<\/b><\/p>\n

According to the GoFundMe page, since being admitted to the hospital, Ellie has undergone a battery of procedures and tests so her team of doctors and providers can get a clearer picture of the severity of the leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura, Matt and Ellie all have a long road ahead of them, with many months spent living at Boston Children’s Hospital,\u201d theGoFundMe stated.<\/p>\n

As of now, the plan is to treat with chemotherapy first and then do a bone marrow transplant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is going to be inpatient throughout her treatments and transplant due to the added risk of infection with neutropenia, so they have told us to plan on living at Boston Children\u2019s for at least four months, possibly longer, depending on how many rounds of chemo she will need,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n

Ellie, who willturn 3 on Feb. 28, started her first 28-day cycle of chemoon Aug. 5. Aftereach round, she will go through testing again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the leukemia is still there, we will need to do more chemo,\u201d Laura said. \u201cShe will have a bone marrow transplant once her leukemia has been cured. She needs the transplant as well because with her neutropenia, there is a good chance the leukemia would come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A local woman is planning a fundraiser for the family from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 18 at Lilac Hedge Farm in Rutland and, in addition to donating to the GoFundMe, Laura said another way people can help is by donating blood and getting tested by Be The Match \u201cto help grow the bone marrow bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough these may not directly impact Ellie, they will help someone else in her situation,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n

A post she made in the Mountaineer Mamas Facebook page last week that included the link to the GoFundMe, www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-the -finizio-family, has garnered nearly 300 care reactions and dozens of supportive comments. The young mother said they are grateful for the ongoing support and has started a Facebook page, Ellie Strong, where they will share updates and such with the legion of people pulling for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are blessed to be part of such an amazing community and to have our wonderful family\u2019s support as we embark on this long journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST BOYLSTON – The greater community is rallying around the Finizio family in a big way following 2-year-old Ellie being diagnosed with leukemiaat the end ofJune. \u201cThe communitysupport has been incredible,\u201d said the toddler\u2019s mother, Laura.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}