On March 16th, 2023 our lives were forever changed when we lost our granddaughter Eleanor Washburn to medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer. She was 5 years old.
Born February 4, 2018, she was vibrant, feisty, loving, and sweet. She loved music and movies, Taylor Swift, Frozen and Tangled were some of her favorites. Much like Taylor, Elsa and Rapunzel, she accepted any challenge set before her with a spirited independence. Medulloblastoma tried to steal Eleanor’s spirit but she fought this relentless enemy with heart, tenacity, and a child’s innocence.
Everything about pediatric cancer is hard. During her 15 month battle, specialized treatments were hard to find or non-existent in Virginia, and those that were available were logistically difficult to navigate. One month after doctors at VCU performed her tumor removal surgery, Eleanor had to be transported by ambulance from Richmond to Washington Children's Hospital in Washington DC to receive specialized proton radiation treatments. Unfortunately, the treatment center was an outpatient facility located 20 miles away from the hospital. She was transported by ambulance to the outpatient clinic 5 days a week, for several weeks. These daily trips took all day and were very hard on Eleanor. All of this took a tremendous toll on her and her family, including her older brother and sister, who were bounced around from Richmond to DC to Lynchburg. They stayed with various family members for days and weeks at a time. As Kelly Woolwine always says, “when a child gets cancer, the whole family gets cancer”.
The “treatment” eventually became too much for Eleanor to endure, and she came home, where her family picked up the daily care of a very ill child. Ultimately, she left this world on a sunny spring day surrounded by her family.
We have a choice now. We can stay lost in our unrelenting grief or we can choose to learn from our experience to help other families like ours. We are choosing to fight back. This is why we are blessed by our partnership with the Life Ring Foundation. It is our mission to help families in Southwest Virginia and the surrounding areas facing the unimaginable have better treatment options for their children, right here, close to home! Pediatric cancer as a whole is grossly underfunded and research to find better targeted treatments is limited. The Life Ring Foundation is committed to changing that narrative. We know having a facility like this within our community will make a substantial difference for families facing the unthinkable.
Eleanor may have left this world, but she will never be forgotten. We will continue this fight in her honor until no other family has to experience what we have.
