This is a story about a 15-year-old girl named Audrey who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just 8 years old.
Here’s what she looked like back then.
Since she was diagnosed, she’s had surgeries to remove a large tumor on her ovary and cancerous lymph nodes, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, regular monitoring with CT scans and MRIs, and recently, a big scare that cancer was back. (It wasn’t.) In other words, Audrey has been around the block and back with this cancer thing.
Her story with us started when she got a Team Summer gift from Team Summer kid Tyler.
Gift cards to her favorite stores! Can you tell she liked them?
Yeah, we thought so, too. 🙂 And ever since then, look at what Audrey has been doing. First she gave a Team Summer gift to McKenzie.
McKenzie is 17 years old. Like Audrey, she is facing a tough battle with ovarian cancer. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for herself, she started a YouTube show from her house giving makeup tutorials. And she wanted to up her game. These boxes wouldn’t mean anything to us…
…but to McKenzie, they’re lights, camera, ACTION! Okay not a camera, but here’s what was in the boxes:
Everything she needed to create a new set for her show! Talk about a great distraction from medical treatments!
She looks really happy, Audrey! Well done!
Next came 17- year-old Poppy who was battling bone cancer. The day Audrey gave her her Team Summer gift, Poppy wasn’t feeling well enough to get out of the car. So she just stayed there and Audrey came to her, no problem!
Poppy was thrilled with her Team Summer gift – something she had always wanted – a Pandora bracelet with lots of charms!
There are a lot of bracelets on that wrist – the Pandora bracelet is the one closest to her hand! If you look a the picture below, you can see some of the charms – the red one is a poppy flower, just like her name; the yellow one is a cancer awareness ribbon; and the one with purple on it is Pandora’s “Summer Fun” charm!
Poppy said she was never, ever taking off her new bracelet.
Next up was 19-year-old Sophia who has been battling an aggressive sarcoma cancer.
We found out that Sophia and her best friend had tickets to a concert in downtown Atlanta. Audrey wanted to make that an unforgettable night. So Team Summer added dinner for two at the classy Alma Cocina restaurant and a night at the very cool Aloft Hotel!
Sophia could hardly believe it!
And we gave her enough cash to catch some cabs and for the girls to have a wonderful breakfast the next morning!
Sophia got to be a normal teenager that night…just hanging out with her best friend. Below is the two of them out on the town. By all reports, they had a GREAT time!
Audrey, you are an amazing and fabulous Team Summer kid!! We know you are past your cancer and could just walk away. But you are staying and helping other kids going through the same things you went through. You make us proud! Take a look again at these smiles. You did that!
Many thanks to Tami Arrowood for capturing all these wonderful moments with her camera!
