Lauren’s Story
Lauren is a 12 year old girl with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Although each day is a struggle for Lauren, she has grown into a very caring and giving young lady. Lauren currently sponsors a nine year old girl, in Tanzania, through Plan. She tries to do jobs around the house to help pay for the $35.00 a month cost. She has adopted “Jim”, a homeless man that lives outside our local McDonalds. Each week she takes him some sort of care package – from baked muffins, packed lunches, books, hand warmers…. the list goes on and on.
In the fall of 2008, Lauren decided, to grow her hair for cancer patients. Just how did Lauren reach this decision…
It all began in Kindergarten.
It was the second week of school. Fundraising and awareness for the Terry Fox Run were being spread throughout the school. Although Lauren had a strong receptive language, her oral language was sitting at < 1 percentile. As her parents, we noticed that Lauren seemed quite agitated. She was not sleeping well and her picking had increased but we didn’t know why. We thought it might be due to the new routine, the curriculum, or peer relations.
Finally the day arrived; the Terry Fox Run. All the students were excited, except Lauren. Lauren refused to leave her seat to join in the walk/run around her field. No matter how much the CEA, teacher, or principal coaxed, Lauren would not budge. Her actions were seen as passive aggressive and she was told how disappointed people were by her actions. In grade one; Lauren again refused to participate in the Terry Fox Run. By grade two, we finally figured out what was bothering Lauren. Lauren thought, if she participated in the Terry Fox Run, she would lose her leg to cancer. It took a lot of conversations around the topic, many viewings of the Terry Fox video, and a visit to the wax museum in Victoria (to see a wax replica of Terry Fox) before Lauren got on board with raising money for cancer research. We then noticed, what was once a phobia had now become an obsession. Lauren’s pretend friend, that she had verbal conversations with, was Terry Fox. She bought, and put above her bed, a poster of Terry Fox. She went to meet Terry Fox’s sister and see the original van that Terry took on his cross Canada run. She now has pictures of Terry Fox’s sister, the van, and Kelowna’s mayor, Sharon Sheppard, in front of the van, above her bed.
As mentioned earlier, in the fall of 2008, Lauren announced that she wanted to grow her hair for cancer. As proud as I was with her, I tried to talk her out of it. I knew that it would be a lot more work, on a daily basis, taking care of long hair. The last thing I needed was more work for me! But, as parents of PWS kids know, once they have a thought, or idea, it becomes an obsession. Lauren has held fast to making this donation. In March of 2010, Lauren will cut her hair for cancer and we are hoping that friends and family will make a donation, in her name, to the Foundation of Prader-Willi Research Canada. The money raised will go towards FPWR Canada’s mission to “Eliminate the challenges of Prader-Willi Syndrome through the advancement of research”.
Lauren, and her family, would like to thank you, in advance, for sponsoring Lauren in this worthy cause.
Joanne, Gord, Jen, Beth, Jeff, Shaun & Lauren
Support Lauren’s cause and sponsor her haircutting adventure today! You can:
1. Donate on-line
2. Mail your cheque to:
FPWR Canada
19-13085 Yonge Street
Suite #370
Richmond Hill, ON
L4E 0K2