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close@MA BodyRR:The third annual Macy Easom Memorial was held recently at the Southern Hills Golf Course in Hawkinsville, raising $40,000 for the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation.
The tournament, the only event the foundation sponsors itself, raises money and also tells the stories of children who have or have had pediatric cancer.
Macy Easom’s story is featured on the tee box at hole one and Joanna McAfee’s on hole 10; other local children are featured on the other tee boxes.
“When we started this tournament, we wanted the emphasis to be on the kids,” said Tommy Chambers, a board member of the Joanna McAfee foundation. “Some are still with us, but some are not.”
Macy passed away in June 2005 at the age of 5, Joanna the next December at the age of 6.
Along with helping to fund research, money raised through the Joanna McAfee foundation helps meet the needs of local families who have children with cancer.
Olivia Culpepper, soon to be a first-grader at Perry Primary, was 3 years old when she was diagnosed with AML, an aggressive form of leukemia.
She endured five rounds of chemo, but relapsed in 2008 and had a bone marrow transplant last June.
Olivia’s mom, Cindy Culpepper, met Misty McAfee, Joanna’s mother, in the lobby at the Children’s Hospital.
“We got to talking and I asked her if she had a child that was sick. She explained that Joanna had passed away but that she still tried to reach out to other families,” Culpepper said.
The support that Culpepper’s family has received from the McAfees and the foundation has been immeasurable, she said.
“They are always checking on us, seeing how Olivia is doing and how we are doing as well,” she said.
From February to December 2008, Olivia was in the hospital a great deal of time. The first year that Olivia was diagnosed, Culpepper said, the McAfee foundation supported them financially at Christmas.
“If cancer doesn’t bankrupt you outright, it will nickel and dime you,” Culpepper said.
The Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation has a three-fold purpose: To provide awareness of childhood cancer, to support local families who have a child with cancer and to help fund research in about childhood cancer. Since the foundation’s inception, more than $200,000 has been spent on the goals. About half has been donated to research projects.
Doing things like helping families with financial needs is key to the foundation’s goals.
“If we hear of an immediate need, we try to help meet it,” Chambers said. “With all the focus that is put on the child, some things fall by the way side, like bills.”
For more information about the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation, visit the Web site at supportcancerkids.org.
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