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Schools

Vinings Woman Leads Lovett's Fight Against Childhood Cancer

Lauren Gearon, a childhood cancer survivor, will be among about 100 school representatives at Sunday's charity fundraiser for CURE Childhood Cancer.

The Lovett School is running for a cure for childhood cancer in honor of three Laurens. About 100 students, parents and faculty are participating in Lauren’s Run, a charity fundraiser for CURE Childhood Cancer, this Sunday at Concourse Office Park in Atlanta.

Since its inception in 2002, Lauren’s Run has raised nearly $2.5 million for pediatric cancer research. Sunday's event is expected to draw more than 2,000 participants for a 5K race, 2K Fun Run/Walk, Tot Trot and picnic.

CURE Childhood Cancer is an Atlanta-based non-profit dedicated to funding cancer research and providing education and support to families of children with cancer. Its 5K fundraiser, Lauren's Run, gets its name from Lauren Zagoria and Lauren Kochman. Both girls died from a type of cancer called neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor that develops from nerve tissue, while they were still toddlers.

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However, it was another Lauren who led Lovett to get involved with Lauren’s Run. Vinings resident Lauren Gearon is a Lovett alumna and mother of three Lovett students. CURE Childhood Cancer holds a special place in Gearon’s heart, herself a childhood cancer survivor. CURE’s founder, Dr. Abdel Ragab, was one of the oncologists who treated Gearon as a child. As an adult, Gearon serves on the CURE board of directors.

Gearon was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a type of cancer that causes bone marrow to stop working properly, when she was a teenager.

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“It was between my seventh and eighth grade year,” Gearon recalls. “And I had just gone in for my camp physical. I mean it really was just a basic routine physical, just fill out the forms and send me off to camp. I was already packed and leaving at the end of the week.

But Gearon would not be going to summer camp that year. At the time there was no known treatment for aplastic anemia.

“I was diagnosed in June and they just put me on a steroid hoping that my body would just try to fix itself,” she said. “Over the next couple of months the transfusions just stopped working.”

Gearon said the doctors and her parents were just trying to keep her alive until a cure could be found. She explained that this is a feeling that many parents of children with cancer experience.

“They’re hoping that around the next bend there’s going to be some drug that’s going to be developed that’s going to give their child the gift of life and that’s going to extend their child’s life,” she said.

Luckily for Gearon, her cure was just around the bend. Her doctors in Atlanta told her parents about an experimental treatment being performed at UCLA with a drug therapy called ATG, a type of antibody therapy. Within three months of receiving the drug, Gearon’s bone marrow had begun to regain function.

“Looking back over my own story, I know I lived it, but putting all the pieces together, without that research that happened at that time, I would have been part of the 90 percent who died,” she said. “It was an incredible gift and I was incredibly lucky. I think I’m only now realizing 35 years later how incredibly lucky I was.”

Part of what helps Gearon appreciate the miracle of her cure is watching her own children grow up. Her oldest son is about to complete eighth grade, the same grade Gearon was in while she battled cancer.

Other students and parents at Lovett have experienced childhood cancer firsthand. Five Lovett students have cancer or have battled cancer in the past, Gearon said.

“There are a number of students at Lovett unfortunately who are affected with cancer,” said Kristin Connor, executive director of CURE Childhood Cancer. “I think that community is very aware of the devastation of the disease. And the kids really just display a real commitment to serving and helping to further our mission. I’m just in awe of that whole community.”

Connor attributes the Lovett community’s active participation in Lauren’s Run and other CURE Childhood Cancer fundraisers to their firsthand experience with the disease. In the past the Lovett team has been a top fundraiser for Lauren’s Run, Connor said.

Since 2008, The Lovett School team has raised $16,350 for Lauren’s Run. In 2010, the school raised almost $9,000, said Gearon.

Gearon and Connor are both impressed with Lovett's support for CURE.

“I have to say that Lovett has gone above and beyond any of my expectations,” Gearon said.

“I’m just in awe of that whole community,” Connor said. “They’ve just really supported us like no other community has.”

For more information on Lauren’s Run, please visit http://www.curechildhoodcancer.org/events/laurens-run/.

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