Meet Harry

I would like to introduce Harry, one of the many children of courage …

a shining star.

Harry was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML, at 6 months of age.

Katie, his mom, said, “Knowing your child has cancer is bad enough. Then finding out it’s a rare type, then an aggressive type. Then learning it has spread into his cerebrospinal fluid, he has a 50/50 chance of survival, and the treatment you are about to put him through is very toxic. It was devastating news.”

After five weeks at the hospital, Harry finished his first round of chemotherapy. Two days later, the Drakes learned that, although the cancer in Harry’s blood was in remission, cancer cells remained in his spinal fluid. He was classified as a relapse. His chances of survival decreased to 20 percent. The only way he might make it was a bone marrow transplant.

When Harry was nearly 8 months old, he underwent that procedure. His donor was an unrelated 25-year-old German miller who chops wood and raises sheep and goats for a living. A true hero indeed.

Harry spent most of his young life in the hospital. He missed the Christmas trees and the birthday parties in his early childhood, living with a feeding tube for so many years, which restricted his playtime. He was denied so many childhood pleasures of running after a ball, climbing a tree, jumping on the trampoline … always needing to be careful.

When Harry was 3, he and his family came to Nancy’s Club for a sailing outing. We thought he was too young to sail. The plan was that he would stay on the beach with his mom Katie, while his 6-year-old brother Jack and his dad Julian would sail with us. Harry took one look at the boat, heard the plan, and loudly expressed his upset that he was to be excluded from the sail. “NO way!”

I was heading up the outing. I listened to Harry. His fierce tenacity, his bravery, his determination were so powerful. I asked the crew to rig up a life jacket for this little strong, brave superman and off Harry sailed. When Dianne, our volunteer captain who invited us to sail on her boat, positioned him behind the wheel, Harry felt his courage. He looked straight into my eyes and said, “Today is the happiest day of my life.”

Katie, Harry’s mom, said to me, “What an uplifting, wonderful experience for our family after 3 years of anguish.”

This is the reason for Nancy’s Club.
This is why we are needed and must continue our work.
For children like Harry.