Katie Vacanti-Mitchell turned 12 last April, loves the color purple, plays softball and soccer and teases her two younger brothers one minute then mothers them the next.
Katie Vacanti-Mitchell turned 12 last April, loves
the color purple, plays softball and soccer and teases her two younger
brothers one minute then mothers them the next.
She considers herself pretty ordinary.
However, Vacanti-Mitchell’s world changed after her
birthday when doctors diagnosed her with leukemia. The irony sobered
Katie, who had spent a year growing her hair long for Locks of Love, a
group that creates wigs for cancer patients from donated hair.
The first night she spent in the hospital,
Vacanti-Mitchell says she sat on the bathroom floor by herself, buried
her face in her hands and unsuccessfully tried to muffle her sobs from
her parents. “I just kept saying, ‘I don’t want to have cancer’ and ‘I
just want to go home and everything be all right,’” she recalls.
However, Vacanti-Mitchell did not let her sadness
stick around for long. During her stay at Vanderbilt Children’s
Hospital, she was visited by Monroe Carell Jr., founder of the medical
institution and CEO of Central Parking Corp., where her dad, James,
works. During the visit, Carell told Vacanti-Mitchell how he spent time
in hospitals as a child.
“When I met Mr. Carell, I realized ordinary people can do extraordinary things,” Vacanti-Mitchell says.
When she finally arrived home, weak and sick from
her first bout with chemotherapy, Vacanti-Mitchell insisted someone
still come and cut her hair to donate it as she had planned. She
refused to keep it for herself, despite the reality that she might lose
her own hair. She told her mother, “Someone else can use it now.”
The summer months brought a slight reprieve in her
illness, but Vacanti-Mitchell returned to the hospital in the fall for
a 12-day stay. Her mother, Melissa, recalls how amazed she felt when
her daughter started asking questions that had nothing to do with her
own situation.
“It was about the second day, … and Katie looked
over at me with this serious expression on her face and said, ‘Mom, I
have a question,’” says Melissa Mitchell, who works at LifeWay
Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. “I just knew
she was getting ready to ask me if she was going to die, and …
frankly, I wasn’t ready for that conversation.”
But that was not what Vacanti-Mitchell had in mind.
Instead, she wanted to know how to start a charity. She said she had
noticed the families of adolescent patients who stay at the hospital.
Though the hospital covers 100 percent of medical costs for those who
cannot afford it, parents still pay for meals, long-distance phone
calls and transportation to and from home.
“We’re lucky because we live close by, and my mom
works for a great company,” Vacanti-Mitchell explains. “The people
there have really supported us, just like the people at our church, but
a lot of families are from out of town. I decided I could try and help
those families so that there would be one thing they didn’t have to
worry about when their son or daughter has cancer.”
With the help of the hospital staff, the young
cancer patient formed “Katie’s Helping Hand.” The hospital staff
manages and administers the fund, helping families with such needs as
food, gas and hotel expenses.
“Katie has demonstrated that she is an unusually
thoughtful and ambitious 12-year-old,” says Bruce Munns, director of
LifeWay Christian Stores and Melissa Mitchell’s supervisor. “Most of us
would simply be overwhelmed by our own problems. She, on the other
hand, took on this challenge to help others while she is in the middle
of her own battle with leukemia.”
Vacanti-Mitchell and her brothers Zack, 11, and
Matthew, 6, have thought about ways they can raise money for the fund,
such as yard sales and canned food drives. The goal for the fund is
$50,000.
“I hope we can help a lot of people,” says
Vacanti-Mitchell, who attended classes on Jan. 24 for the first time
this school year. “Small things can make a huge difference. I know God
put this on my heart to do. It makes you feel so much better, knowing
you’re helping people who are going through the same thing that you
are. You don’t feel as bad about yourself.”
Katie has received plenty of encouragement, with
more than 200 cards from LifeWay employees and other people who have
heard her story. Her selflessness has not gone unnoticed as well – she
recently was appointed Girl of the Year by the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society Nashville chapter, and Vanderbilt has asked her to help with
additional fundraising efforts.
But none of this means as much as what her mother
told her on a day when Katie was feeling a little down, queasy and sick
from yet another round of chemo, and coming to grips with losing her
hair completely.
“You’ve raised $5,000 so far, Katie,” she said. “That’s like a thousand families you’ve helped feed.”
Vacanti-Mitchell’s pale face looked a little
brighter as she smiled, her mother recalls. “One thousand families –
that’s pretty good,” the young girl said. (BP)
(For more information, visit Vanderbilt Children’s
Web site at www.vanderbiltchildrens.com and click on “Helping Us,” then
“Making a Contribution,” then “Katie’s Helping Hand.” Drop Katie a line
in her online guest book at www.