Celebrity for a Day, Royal Oak Girl's Star Shines Brightly

Emily Sobeck spent Friday basking in the limelight, thanks to Make-A-Wish Michigan. (Photo via Twitter)

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The paparazzi caught 10-year-old Emily Sobeck’s good side Friday. She rode in a stretch white limousine and signed autographs, a bodyguard at her side. She was showered with roses and celebrity beauty treatments. Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison proclaimed Friday “Emily Day” in her honor at a surprise assembly at her school.

The Hollywood treatment came at a big price: leukemia, a disease the Royal Oak girl’s family got a hint of two years ago when she made it only a block during Halloween trick-or-treating before she collapsed in exhaustion on a friend’s couch, The Oakland Press and WWJ-TV report.

A blood test the following day confirmed the diagnosis. Two years of gruelling chemotherapy treatments followed, with positive results. The leukemia is in remission now and the chemo treatments have been reduced to once a month, making Friday’s royal treatment, arranged by Make-A-Wish Michigan, a true celebration of life – not that Emily ever stopped celebrating her life.

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After her diagnosis, Emily resolved to survive. Her studies at Shrine Catholic Grade School, where she’s a fifth grader, never suffered. She joined the swim team, but she knew she was different than her classmates said her mother, Francesca Sobeck.

“She is very strong,” Sobeck said. “No one would ever know what she goes through and she tries to never complain to anybody. I realize when I tuck her in at night she has really been putting on a front.”

Emily had more celebrity appearances before her Friday – to find more, follow the #CelebrityEmily hash tag on Twitter – and another one later this fall when she makes a celebrity appearance at Make-A-Wish Michigan’s Wish Ball on Nov. 8 at MGM Grand Detroit.

The school and community support was a pleasant surprise for the family, Sobeck said.

“It has been so overwhelming,” she said. “My daughter felt that if she was a celebrity she would love to make people feel better through music if she was able to.”

The monthly cancer treatments end in January, when tests will determine if Emily is a candidate for a bone marrow transplant.

Below are some of the Tweets about Emily’s big day. If you want to wish her well, be sure to use the hash tag #CelebrityEmily.

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