Posted on 11/29/2004 5:02:28 PM PST by Between the Lines
Emma Banks knows all about the adventure she and her family headed off to Friday.
"We're going on a trip to the Bahamas," announced the 3-year-old who turns 4 today, after some helpful whispering from big brother Parker, who is 7. "We're going to swim with the dolphins."
It's a big deal for the little girl from Mooresville, N.C. It's also a significant milestone for both the Make-A-Wish Foundation and for the inspiring legacy left by another young girl, Hope Stout.
Emma is the 155th child granted a wish through Celebration of Hope, the astonishing fund-raiser inspired by 12-year-old Hope last year.
It was about a year ago when the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked Hope, who suffered from a form of bone cancer, to make a wish.
Hope countered with a question of her own: How many children were waiting for wishes?
Told there were 155, Hope's wish became the Charlotte region's challenge: Raise enough money to grant the wishes of 155 other local children with life-threatening illnesses.
That's when "a beautiful kind of chaos happened," said Amy Laws, wish director for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Western North Carolina, based in Charlotte.
Hope's story stirred national interest. When Hope died Jan. 4, almost $500,000 had been raised. That grew to a total of more than $1 million two weeks later.
Spend some time watching Emma scramble on her stuffed tiger Sam, or play her Barbie guitar to a Hillary Duff song, and you'd be hard-pressed to find signs of how sick she has been this year.
It all started March 1, when Emma returned from Peninsula Baptist Preschool complaining of a tummy ache. It even hurt her to yawn, father Aaron Banks said.
She awoke the next morning feverish and with a sore side. The next afternoon - after a visit to Emma's doctor and a referral for hospital tests - the Bankses were stunned to find themselves meeting with a pediatric oncologist. Emma's left kidney had a malignant tumor and needed to be removed.
"Our lives got completely turned around in the matter of three days," Susan Banks said.
The morning after doctors removed her kidney, Emma walked on her own to the bathroom. That was the start of Emma's bravely toughing out her treatments with little complaint, including seven months of chemotherapy, which she finished just weeks ago.
Doctors will follow Emma closely for the next four years, and she still returns to the hospital every other month for CT scans, Susan Banks said.
For Hope's parents, Shelby and Stuart, reaching the 155th milestone with Emma's Caribbean adventure is a bright spot during a hard year.
Hope had dreamed of swimming with dolphins, too, and had the chance before she got sick, on a family vacation to Cancun.
"We miss her physical presence so much, but we feel her spirit here," Stuart Stout said.
The Stout family planned on using a dolphin theme at this year's Celebration of Hope gala when they learned of Emma's dolphin trip, Shelby Stout said.
Coincidence?
Stuart Stout thinks not.
"Hope," he said, "is directing things from upstairs."
Wow, most would have given up after 154.
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