Pennies for Penny

I belong to a very special blogging community called MomDot. I have made some good blogging friends, and found a lot of support from the women (and men!) that belong.

One woman who is a member has a cousin whose baby was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. If you’re not familiar with neuroblastoma, it is the most common cancer in children, generally younger than two. Stage 4 is the worst stage. It means it has possibly spread to the organs, bones, bone marrow and lymph nodes.

Penelope isn’t even a year old.

How is it fair that a beautiful little baby girl is now fighting for her life, hooked up to oxygen, tubes that feed and drain her, and is getting chemo. She is paralyzed from the waist down right now because the tumor was pressing on the spinal cord. She had surgery on that last week, but they are still waiting for swelling to go down in hopes that she’ll regain movement. Just when you thought that was bad enough, she was just diagnosed with RSV (Respiratory Sincytial Virus).

Penny’s parents do have insurance, however the plan they are on requires them to pay 40% out of pocket. One CT scan last week alone was over $10,000. There are very few out there who could manage to pay 40% of medical fees associated with cancer and cancer treatments. Penny and her family need help.

Next Friday, March 19th, there is going to be a fundraiser auction to help raise money to pay for Penny’s treatments. You can find out all of the details and learn more about Penny at Pennies4Penny.org. The auction will run through the weekend and end at 9pm PST on March 21st.

Even if you can’t commit to bidding on an item in the auction, there is a PayPal link on Penny’s site where you can make a donation to the family. I don’t doubt ANYTHING is too small, and I know the family would be more than grateful for your love and support.

Can you help this beautiful little girl and her family?