Baily Bennett is four years old. He likes to ride his bike and take trips to the train store. Some of his favorite things are VW bugs – “Herbie cars” – and firetrucks. He loves his family and his friends. And six months ago he was diagnosed with advanced stage anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

After finding a large tumor in his left lung, protruding on his heart, while at the doctor for a cold, Baily underwent intensive chemotherapy. One month later the tumor had shrunk from 11cm to 3cm. By the end of June it had regrown to 7cm and Baily had pneumonia. Finding the tumor to be extremely aggressive, doctors have put him on another intensive chemotherapy regiment. Baily will be having a stem cell transplant in the next couple of months.

Originally from Tacoma, Baily’s family is moving to Seattle for his transplant and treatment. Many in the community have reached out to help and support the family of five during this difficult time. His aunt and Queen Anne resident Lisa Todd has put together a website for Baily, and has organized several events for hew nephew, including Cupcakes for Baily tomorrow, Sunday, October 4 from 12:30 to 5 p.m. at the Queen Anne Community Center.

Lisa aims to help raise money for Baily’s treatment and find his family a place to stay for the four to six months of his treatment in Seattle. She hopes to find them a place close to hers on Queen Anne, as the community has been extremely warm and welcoming. She writes,

My brother Mark and his family will need to relocate to Seattle while Baily has his transplant. Starting at the end of October they are looking for housing. I am hopeful (selfishly?) that they will find something close to me up on QA — one because it is the place I know and where there are resources for their other kids (Caleb 2 1/2 and Hanna and also it is a place that I have found so accessible and full of community support that I want to share that with them during this most difficult time.

For fundraising their costs have continued to mount. My brother’s employer changed insurance companies in September, which meant they had to satisfy two deductibles and co-pay limits for the year. There was also quite a nail-biting time during the insurance switch as the new carrier had a 6 month waiting period for transplant that they could have upheld but our attorney, Rick Spoonemore (also who lives on QA) helped enormously and the new carrier decided to not uphold the 6 month waiting period, so Baily has been able to move forward with planning for transplant. Other costs such as prescription co-pays, infusions, multiple visits/travel relocating to Seattle…even simple things like suddenly always eating out since they are not at home much when going to/from the hospital… it all mounts to large expenses.

My goal was to try to meet their expenses so that at least there was one stresser they didn’t have to worry about — I continue to work on this as a way to focus my energy and to hope to help.

In an attempt to raise money for Baily’s treatment and his family’s relocation, Lisa has put together a silent auction and raffle for the party tomorrow. Kids will be able to decorate their own cupcakes, while parents can participate in two silent auctions (at 3 and 4 p.m.) and enter into one of four raffle drawings (at 1:30, 2, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.). Prizes include four Seahawks tickets to the game vs. the Detroit Lions on November 8tt, two 5th Avenue Theatre tickets to see White Christmas on December 2nd (center seats six rows back from the stage!), a Nintendo Wii sports AND The Beatles Rockband Wii game, and a one night stay at the Alderbrook Resort. Raffle tickets go for $10, and are available for purchase online here.

Information on how to donate to Baily’s cause or volunteer your time can be found on his website. All donations are confidential and will go directly to the family to cover the costs of medical bills, deductible payments, co-pays, prescriptions, home infusions and “ease the burden” of the family’s relocation to Seattle and loss of income from missed work.  And whether or not you have $10 to spend, your support and warm wishes for Baily and his family will be greatly appreciated. Lise writes,

Many people have come forward to help and to give of their time and efforts. Kerrie Malone, who lives on QA, has been amazing. She initially responded to a question I posed on the QA mom’s site about help with fundraisers — she had just spent the year prior assisting with many events to help support a dear friend of hers who passed away from Cancer. She is a web designer and has created the artwork for the t-shirts, the website, postcard, thank you cards, posters… all the materials and they look amazing. She has also become a wonderful rock of support during a very rocky course with Baily.

My neighbor Lonni Gonsolus has twin girls, one of whom had leukemia when she was young. Lonni has been an amazing well of information on how to assist with navigating treatment, the needs of the home and family and the small practical ways to help that make a great difference.

We organized with a group called Gloria’s Angels (gloriasangels.org) who helped to create a framework for volunteers. They got us started setting up structure to meet the needs of the family. We now have a meal schedule to deliver food to them twice a week and to keep their freezer stocked, have housecleaning and childcare volunteers too.

I created the website with the goal to have one place in which to learn about Baily and to express support. It has had an amazing response. We also started a Facebook cause, which now has over 1000 members from all over the country and more! It’s amazing how far reaching the networking has gone.

Thank you for your generous gift to Baily!