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This is a keepsake of Gayle Withrow’s.
Gayle Withrow’s daughter, Shannon Froio was 6 ½ when she died in February 2007 from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The little girl was treated at Upstate University Hospital from the age of two. Twice, she travelled to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for bone marrow transplants. When they discovered she had relapsed, doctors estimated she had a month to live.
“We just wanted her to enjoy her life,” Withrow says. Every day that Shannon woke up and asked to go to Build-a-Bear, that’s where the family went. And that was just about every day. Shannon accumulated 25 stuffed animals. The spotted cat was her favorite.
“The last week of her life she was too sick to go to the store, so the store sent mascot, Bearamy to her house to visit.”
After Shannon died, her parents started a foundation geared toward helping families have fun, even during times of medical treatment. They raised money for the Shannon Froio Foundation through golf tournaments.
Now, twice a year the foundation invites families with children in the outpatient cancer center to visit Build-a-Bear for free. The visits are near Shannon’s birthday of May 26, and again in November. Withrow says some nurses are invited to make the trip with their children, too. “It’s good for them to see each other in a different setting,” she says.
Bearamy also makes an annual visit to the Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders at Upstate, bringing with him stuffed animals and various outfits.
Do the foundation activities make Withrow sad about her daughter? “Just the opposite,” she says.
Withrow was a medical technologist who stopped working when Shannon became ill. A couple months after Shannon died, Upstate had an opening for a clinical research associate in the center where Shannon received treatment. Withrow applied.
Now she works in an office lined with notebooks, coordinating Upstate patients with clinical trials taking place all over the country. She is helping researchers find ways for children have longer and better survivals from cancer.
“This is a way to keep Shannon alive for me. It’s really very rewarding.”
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
