Give it up for the kids

Do it in the name of Alexis, Michael, Amy, Kiki, and Patrick.

My daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with leukemia in 1993 and had the good fortune to be treated at Children’s Hospital and the Jimmy Fund Clinic. Ted Williams, the godfather of Jimmy Fund advocacy, called Kate when she was 8 years old and bellowed, “You’re going to be all right, darling. I knew Dr. Farber and he always used to tell me, ‘Ted, we’re gonna find a way to cure those kids!’ You’ll be OK, and someday I’ll come up there and visit you!’’

After two years of treatment, Kate was OK and Ted did come up to visit her, and today she is a high school English teacher and softball coach. When people ask me how she is doing - people who remember the image of a 60-pound cue-ball kid throwing out a first pitch at Fenway - I tell them she is strong enough to beat me up. Everybody loves that.

Kate is strong enough to beat me up because she was one of the lucky ones. Dr. Sidney Farber was right when he told Ted they were going to find a way to cure those kids. But it’s an evolving, ongoing battle - a fight with enormous pain and loss. It’s a battle that won’t be won until all the kids are cured, until all of the children are as lucky as Kate. It’s why today I speak of Alexis, Michael, Amy, Kiki, and Patrick.

You know them. They are the kids who were not as lucky as Kate. They are the sons and daughters of parents who will never be whole again. They are the brave young soldiers who didn’t survive the battle that was forced upon them. They are frozen in time, photographs and memories, forever 8 years old. The children who never got older.

They are the reason we continue to give.

So I remind you that you can call 877-738-1234 or go to www.jimmyfundradiotelethon.org.