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Community shows its ‘Love for Lily’

Benefit Saturday for child with cancer

By Scott Bellile

When Lily Vande Burgt turns 7 on Tuesday, March 28, her well-wishers undoubtedly will be hoping for a happier year ahead.

Lily’s last five months have been packed with medical appointments and overnight hospital stays for cancer treatment.

Lily Vande Burgt

“It’s a lot for a little 6-year-old to endure,” said Tina Kerscher, who is helping to organize her granddaughter’s “Love for Lily” benefit with The Mob Bear Creek.

Lily’s benefit is set for Saturday, March 25, from noon to 7 p.m. at Crystal Falls, 1500 Handschke Drive, New London.

Activities will include a bake sale, children’s activities, raffles and a silent auction. Attendees also may bring and leave birthday cards.

The benefit aims to offer financial support to Heather and Nick Vande Burgt for their daughter’s treatments.

The family also accepts donations through Heather’s Venmo account, Love for Lily.

Lily’s diagnosis

Lily started experiencing pain in her abdomen in November.

Following testing, she was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve cells. Lily was sent to Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

“There she ended up having a biopsy, and they found that there’s a tumor in her stomach, and it got into her legs, into her bones,” Kerscher said.

Lily underwent chemotherapy for 18 days at the children’s hospital in December. Side effects prolonged her stay.

Her parents were by her side. She was only permitted one hour with her 5-year-old brother, Hunter, due to the risk of spreading illness.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, Lily’s white blood cell counts improved enough to go home.

Strength from school

Outside her family, Lily has many backers at Emanuel Lutheran School.

“When we were informed of Lily’s diagnosis in early December, it was a no-brainer that our Emanuel family was going to go all in to help in any way possible,” Principal Bill Fuerstenau said.

The cheer squad raised $3,600 for the family in two weeks and presented the gift at a home basketball game, he said.

Emanuel’s opponents, St. Mark Lutheran School of Green Bay, upped it another $1,000.

Families and students also sold wristbands, prepared meals, sent handmade cards and organized a post-Christmas visit to the Vande Burgts’ home with Santa, the Grinch and the fire department.

“So many in the community helped out with many, many things,” Kerscher said.

Lily continues to attend class when she can. When she is in the hospital, first grade teacher Emily Rogrique coordinates lessons with the teachers at Children’s Wisconsin, Fuerstenau said.

Children’s Wisconsin provides free 4K-12 educational services to its patients, helping them to stay current with coursework and take their minds off illness.

“We will continue to support the Vande Burgt family on their journey through Lily’s treatment with our gifts and with our prayers,” including at their benefit, Fuerstenau said.

Lily’s fight continues

While New London celebrated St. Patrick’s Day last weekend, the Vande Burgts left for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

This week, surgeons at MSK – ranked the No. 2 cancer hospital in the country by U.S. News and World Report – were set to remove a tumor from Lily’s stomach area.

“It has shrunk 40%, so that’s a good thing,” Kerscher said before the operation.

Lily is expected to spend the weekend recovering before possibly beginning chemo next week.

Doctors say Lily could require five trips to New York for radiation in the next 18 months.

“She’s a tough little cookie,” Kerscher said. “She had a lot to endure … but she is a fighter.”

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