A day of thanksgiving

We received wonderful news that tops off our Thanksgiving: Sawyer is in remission! Results from his bone marrow test on Monday have shown 0% leukemia cells at this point! We are very excited but know that the road ahead is still long. Most people relapse at some point in their treatment; it's a good fact to know to help mentally prepare ourselves, if needed. But for now, we are relieved, excited and ready to celebrate!

We hope everyone has a relaxed and wonderful Thanksgiving Day with their friends and family; and that each of you takes a moment to cherish life and all its blessings. We certainly will be doing that!

We sent a letter to the editor of Alfred Sun newspaper to be published in this week's edition and wanted to share it with everyone since not all read that paper (which is definitely worth its subscription price).

"A Letter of Thanks"

At this time of Thanksgiving, our family has much to be thankful for and we want to express some of those sentiments to the members of the Alfred and Almond community as well as many in area communities. As most of you know, Sawyer was diagnosed with leukemia last month and was immediately hospitalized to begin what will be a three-year long treatment (fortunately, most of it will be out-patient).

We were immediately taken under the wing of a fantastically supportive community of friends, family, students and folks we haven’t yet met. We are truly blessed to be part of such a caring place. We are thankful to have a doctor who recognized the problem, an accommodating school system working to ensure Sawyer stays current on school work, an amazing facility and staff at the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, and friends and family willing to give up their time to keep things running smoothly at home and at work, and so much more.

The “Stacks for Sawyer” fundraiser was quickly planned and then attended by over 1000 people. Numerous volunteers devoted hours of time organizing the event and lining up others to decorate the room, serve food, bus tables and sell raffle tickets for an amazing array of donated items. A special fund was set up for donations and other fundraising benefits were put into place (the sale of two different bracelets, specially designed t-shirts and an upcoming concert). What more can a family receive? How about dinners brought to our house four times a week, or hundreds of get well cards, or donations of gift cards and cash to help offset gas and food, or the purchase of an iPad to assist Sawyer with school work and to help entertain him as he is/was confined to the hospital and home? Our list seems to be endless – we are truly blessed and eternally thankful.

Maybe we can’t all save the world or single-handedly solve global issues but we can all make a difference to individuals and the quality of life in our community. If anyone ever doubts the power of community and the effect it can have on someone’s life, Sawyer stands as a testament to the strength of that power. One of the greatest gifts he has received from this experience is the awareness of that phenomenon and the knowledge that he will be able to do the same for others in the future. What better gift can parents want for their children? Again, thank you to our community for setting the example and for setting the bar high.

During many of our cold winter days it’s easy to think it would be nice to live in a place where the “Sun comes out [more than] once a week” but after the past month we wouldn’t think of living anywhere else! We look forward to being able to continue to be part of this community and to being able to give to others what has been given to us.

Laurie, Mark and Sawyer McFadden