Published: June 28, 2009 09:27 am      

Cruise slated for area charity

Hannah Jo Smith Foundation hopes to meet $1M goal for cancer research at Children’s Hospital

When Tresa Myers’ 2-month-old son Jace had a rare tumor on his back the doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center didn’t try radiation. Instead they gave him Celebrex, an arthritis medication.

Myers, 35, of Grayson found out Jace’s tumor was shrinking at his last checkup in March.

The kind of experimental treatments that helped with Jace’s tumor are the same kind made possible through the Hannah Jo Smith Foundation, a local charity that funds children’s cancer research at Children’s Hospital.

The foundation will host a charity cruise July 25 to raise money for cancer research and hopefully meet a $1 million goal set when the foundation began about 10 years ago.

Hannah Jo Smith, 16, of Ashland was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 4 years old.

Twelve years later she’s a cancer survivor who, with her parents, works to help other children do the same.

“I love it, I love it,” Hannah Jo said of the foundation and its work. “I wish I could be more involved in it.”

She said that while she can’t do much for the foundation because of her age, she plans on being very involved as she gets older.

“She’s the mascot of our cause,” said Hannah Jo’s mother Meggan A. Smith, 45, of Ashland.

The cause will get a boost with the fundraiser “Cruise’n for a Cure” this July. The event will be an evening cruise down the Ohio River on the Belle of Cincinnati.

Gwen Myers, an event planner for the foundation, said the group is $60,000 away from its goal. The goal is the commitment set by Hannah Jo’s parents.

Myers said she’s hopeful the cruise will raise the necessary $60,000, but that she’s sure that, with the cruise and the foundation’s annual golf tournament, the goal will be met.

Marilyn Mason, also an event planner for the foundation, said the idea for the fundraiser came from the reception at her son’s wedding, which took place on the Belle of Cincinnati.

A lot of the regular foundation donors came to the reception and enjoyed themselves, so it seemed like a good way to raise money, she said. Mason and Myers began planning the fundraiser that night.

Hannah Jo first visited Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center after a visit to her doctor because of unstable iron levels. The doctor decided to send Hannah Jo to Cincinnati to get a blood test.

“She wouldn’t say the word leukemia,” Meggan Smith said. “But I knew pretty much.”

Children’s Hospital confirmed the diagnosis in about 15 minutes, she said.

Meggan Smith described the day she got Hannah Jo’s diagnosis as the worst of her life, filled with “complete devastation, complete fear.”

Hannah Jo started treatment the next day.

Hannah Jo said she remembered getting shots and spinal taps and losing her hair twice.

Her parents remember fighting for their daughter to get anesthesiology during painful procedures such as spinal taps.

They continue to fight for children through the foundation.

“I plan on continuing until we cure leukemia,” Meggan Smith said.

The Smith’s fight includes the ability to help other families with sick children get fast treatment at Children’s Hospital.

There have been several occasions when the Smiths have made a call to the hospital in order to get a local child seen quickly.

They made the call for Tresa Myers as well as Lisa Nickell, 43, of Sandy Hook.

Nickell found out that her daughter Whitney Nickell, 12, needed to see a specialist on a Friday and was told she would have to wait over the weekend for a referral. But Nickell said she wasn’t prepared to wait. She started making calls and eventually got in touch with John C. Smith, Jr., Hannah Jo’s father.

“We really felt like the Lord led us to Cincinnati because I didn’t know John Smith,” Nickell said.

Whitney was checked into Children’s Hospital that night. She was later diagnosed with the same type of leukemia that Hannah had.

All they have to do is make a phone call, John Smith said. All the money raised by the Hannah Jo Smith Foundation goes to research.

“The only thing we get out of that is just the inspiration to help more people,” he said.

Dr. Frank Smith, director of the division of hematology and oncology at Children’s Hospital said the money raised by the foundation helps to fund pilot projects for possible leukemia cures so scientists can collect data needed to apply for larger grants.

Projects include one developing a drug from a protein that helps keep leukemia cells from dividing, he said.

Dr. Frank Smith said research is the reason that chances of survival for a child with leukemia rose from about 10 percent in 1959 to as high as 90 percent in some types of leukemia today.

Hannah Jo was clinically cured of leukemia when she was 9 years old, five years after her diagnosis. She still goes back to get a yearly checkup because of the side effects of chemotherapy, including heart problems and diabetes.

She said the process has had a big effect on her life.

“It’s changed me a lot,” Hannah Jo said. “I always want to help people.”

KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.