Party: GAS FOR KATIE CANCER FOUNDATION GOLF EVENT

Party: GAS FOR KATIE CANCER FOUNDATION GOLF EVENT

Take advantage of this exclusive offer at Aliso Viejo Country Club, support a wonderful cause and come out to golf with a group of your friends, family or colleagues. The Gas 4 Katie Cancer Foundation is helping local families right here in Orange County fight their battle with pediatric cancer! They will have a booth set up right outside the pro shop on April 20th. Please visit their booth and make a donation of $10 or more to receive this special discounted golf rate. What better way to spend the day…. all while giving to an amazing cause!


Please continue reading to learn more about this worthwhile cause.

April 20, 2015
Registration: 10:00 A.M.
Shotgun: 11:00 A.M.

$65: Includes Greens Fee/Cart Fee & Lunch
When you donate

For More Information and to register, please contact Chrislynn VanSkiver at 949.609.3305 OR [email protected]
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In 2013, I founded the Gas4Katie Cancer Foundation to support my neighbor and friend, Katie Hawley, who was battling a rare form of bone cancer called Neuroblastoma. Katie’s parents had to drive her back and forth from Orange County to LA almost every day for her chemotherapy treatments. I wanted to do something to help so I thought to raise money in the form of gas cards to help ease some of the burden for their family. Fortunately, Katie is now 14 and has no evidence of disease! In honor of Katie being in remission, I am now expanding my foundation to help other local families here in Orange County who are also suffering from Pediatric Cancer. Your generous donations will go directly to help these families. Here are their stories:

Scarlette Tipton – Rancho Santa Margarita
Since the day Scarlette Rose Tipton was born, she has baffled doctors around the country. She was born with an enlarged left arm, chest, and shoulder, and no explanation as to why could be found. By the time she was 2 months old, she had a PICC line placed in her chest, a round of chemo, and two biopsies done on her arm. She bounced around two different diagnoses and no one could come up with an answer, until a tumor started to grow. Over the course of two months, it grew and grew and took over her entire back. She had it removed, after two extensive surgeries to shut off veins supplying the tumor, in late April. In the beginning of May, she got the diagnosis of Undifferentiated High Grade Spindle Cell Sarcoma. The day they called to tell her the news, they found another tumor on her spine. After removing the tumor, she started a 12 week chemo plan and waited to see where it would take her. Though chemo did its job in stopping new growth, it did not minimize the already grown tumor in her arm and chest. It had completely wrapped itself in all her muscles, veins, arteries, and bones. No one in California would touch her when asked if they could remove it surgically. They contacted the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and they agreed that they could remove it, but it meant that her arm, shoulder, clavicle, scapula, and all the surrounding skin had to be removed as well. If she didn't do the surgery, they said she wouldn't live past a year. They returned to Minnesota and they successfully completed the surgery, did skin grafts and a fake skin to cover the wound, and she has healed wonderfully. She is now considered NED (no evidence of disease)! She still needs to have two more surgeries, one to place skin expanders, and one to remove the expanders 6 months later and close the wound completely. After 19 surgeries, we know she will fly through these last two no problem! She has taught us all that you don't need two wings to fly!

Saylor Voris – San Clemente
Two weeks after school started in 2013, Saylor got some weird sore throat and cold that would not go away for over a week and she started to get real tired. She also noticed that she had this kind of bug bite on her leg that started to look really bad. She showed her parents and they said, “If you still feel bad in the morning, we'll take you to the doctor.” Well, by morning her leg was so hot and painful, she could barely walk on it. Her mom rushed her right over to Saddleback Hospital in San Clemente. They did not like what they saw and said her blood pressure was very low. They were not exactly sure what was going on, but they needed her transferred right away to the next closest hospital with a hematologist on staff, so off to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo she went. While there, they ran some more blood work and found the same results; her white and red blood cells were “alarmingly” LOW. The hematologist did not want to say why without a bone marrow test. After the test, they told her it is a very, very, rare case of Leukemia. It’s called Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) with a sub type M-7.

Niko Greco – Lake Forest
On January 5th 2014, 6 year old Nikolai was complaining about a pain in his knee. He saw numerous doctors, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with him, and then suddenly the pain went away. Days later, he woke up with severe elbow pain and then he couldn’t lift his arm. His family realized that during his hospital visits no labs were ran to check his blood, so they rushed him to the ER to request a full blood panel be drawn. After 3 hours, the doctor came back with results and gave Niko’s family an unthinkable diagnosis. He was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), and the diagnosis was confirmed. He has B-cell ALL Leukemia. Niko has now undergone surgery, chemo, and spent days in the hospital learning how to take his medications. He is still in treatment, both inpatient and outpatient, but no matter where he is, his infectious smile and laughter fills the room. Niko has had many setbacks along the way with being allergic to many of the antibiotics, chemo, and even blood products. He has spent weeks without food and tubes and drains coming out of his entire body, even suffering from stroke like symptoms from one chemo, but throughout all of his struggles he has never lost his spirit or his faith, and those two things have carried him thus far.

On behalf of Scarlette, Saylor and Niko, I want to thank you very much for your support! With your help, we can make a difference here in Orange County in the lives of these families who unfortunately are faced with this terrible disease!

Ashley Bussell, Age 13
Gas 4 Katie Cancer Foundation, Founder


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