A Relay For Life update from event Chair, Maria Grove:
This week, the Glastonbury Relay for Life would like to introduce you to one of our “Featured Survivors”, thirteen year old Thomas Ersevim. Our Relay features survivors every year to give a face of endurance and success to the community. Thomas is the reason the Relay is so important – here is his story:
“Today Thomas is a 7th grader and a self-proclaimed science geek who competes in the Science Bowl, participates in Drama Club and plays soccer. But four years ago, just a week after starting 3rd grade, a kidney cancer diagnosis stopped him and his family in their tracks. The doctors said that Thomas' Wilms Tumor was the size of a small soccer ball and was an aggressive type of cancer. After having surgery to remove his left kidney, he then had a week of targeted radiation followed by a long road of intensive chemotherapy. The chemotherapy led to countless platelet and blood transfusions, and a constant cycle of high fevers followed by lengthy hospitalizations. That year, Thomas experienced Halloween in a hospital bed, with the nurses coming to his room to deliver candy to him, sort of the reverse of the way its supposed to be. Thomas endured treatments for a solid nine months – his entire third grade year. Quite a change from the young man who, before his cancer diagnosis, had never even had a prescription filled. Today Thomas is back to full health, with a bright future ahead of him. He dreams of studying Chemistry at MIT or Berkley, with the goal of one day becoming an Inorganic Chemistry Professor. But his mom says to stay away from experiments with radioactivity. He's already had enough of that.”
Don’t forget, information about the Glastonbury Relay for Life can be at www.relayforlife.org/glastonburyct. If you are a cancer survivor, we’d like to personally invite you to walk the special “Survivor’s Lap” which kicks off the Relay and have you join us for a special Survivor’s Dinner on Friday night at the Relay. It is a way to celebrate life and all you’ve accomplished!
** The amazing portrait was taken by Exclusive Image Photography **
