Local Community Comes Together To Help 4-Year-Old With Cancer

MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY - The Massapequa Park community recently came together to help a local 4-year-old after she was recently diagnosed with cancer.

In August, Quinn Tranchina started running fevers every afternoon and complaining of leg pain so her parents, Dennis and Shanon Tranchina took her to urgent care.

The doctor took some x-rays and said that Quinn just had some mosquito bites but that they saw something on her foot so to take her to an orthopedic doctor.

Photo courtesy of Shanon Tranchina

The orthopedic they said that it looked like she had a sprain and gave her a boot. He also told the parents that if she didn't get better to have some blood tests.

She started to get worse to the point where she couldn't really walk, so her parents took her to get some blood tests.

A few hours later, the doctors called to say that Quinn had a critical amount of white blood cells and to take her to the emergency room immediately.

The family then all went to Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, where doctors officially diagnosed Quinn with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow that affects white blood cells.

"We didn't expect anything, we thought she had a sprain or maybe a kidney infection, we didn't think leukemia because its the last thing you think of," Shanon told Patch. "We were terrified, shocked, just beside ourselves but the doctors and nurses really calmed us down. Quinn's never even been sick before, she's never had a prescription."

Luckily, the cancer is treatable. Quinn will have to undergo chemotherapy for about 2 years until her cancer is fully cured.

In the meantime, the Massapequa Park community stepped up to help the Tranchina family, especially since Dennis is a native of the community.

"When Quinn was diagnosed, we had an unbelievable community outpouring to the point where I think we had meals for about 5 weeks after she was diagnosed," she said. "Please gave us meals and gave us gift cards."

In addition, the local baseball coaches reached out to the family and suggested doing a fundraiser, which was held earlier this month at John J Burns park.

The event included a youth baseball double header between the South Shore Chiefs 7U and the Massapequa Thunder 7u and the South Shore Chiefs 8U against the Massapequa Cyclones 8U.

The money was raised through the $5 admission and a donation from all the players in the game as well as raffles and t-shirt sales. In addition, a Berner Middle School student was playing his viola for tips that were donated to the family as well.

In total, fundraiser raised almost $6,500 for the Tranchina family.

The guests also got to enjoy the game which ended in a 12-4 win for the Thunder and a 12-2 win for the Cyclones.

"It was amazing because it is such a hard time for us but to know that everyone here really care about us and even if they don't know us to come out and support us, it's indescribable, I've never experienced anything like it."

In addition to the recent fundraiser, a GoFundMe page was started in September to raise money for the family.

The goal of the page is to raise $12,500 for medical bills and other treatment expenses. A total of $11,580 was raised to the page.

Local resident Heather Donohue also sponsored a fundraiser for Quinn for her business 31 gifts. She donated her commission to Quinn's GoFundMe account.

"I don't even know if thank you is enough to say. everything they have done from the beginning it means so much to us just to have the support, even just the neighbors who took my older daughters to school when I have to be at the clinic early."

Images courtesy of Keith Pignetti