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Lizzy Spencer’s favorite colors are lime green and blue — she loves to draw what she sees in the sky. Someday, this 8-year-old plans to be an artist.
But for now, the little girl who enjoys cuddling with her cat, FDR, and whose smile can light up a room, has a big challenge.
Lizzy’s in the fight of her life against brain cancer.
“My mom’s Aunt Wally had (cancer),” she said. “She died because of her cancer. It made me a little sad. But my parents said I could get better from it.”
Something’s not right
This spring, Lizzy, who never complained about anything, her mother, Andrea said, started getting headaches. Those headaches quickly came more frequently — and were getting more excruciating.
“I was doing yoga in gym,” Lizzy said. “I was doing the child’s pose, and it really hurt my head.”
The pose, she demonstrated, is where she kneels on the floor with her hands stretched straight out behind her. She leans forward until her forehead touches the floor.
“I felt really tired, and in class, I told my teacher I didn’t feel good,” she said. “Every day, my head hurt really bad.”
In May, things took a turn for the worst.
Her father, Jim, who lives in Fairport, said he knew something was just not right with his little girl.
“When you look at kids, they have this light in their eyes,” said the Greece-Olympia teacher. “I know there’s something wrong when the light goes out of her eyes.”
Andrea, who lives in Palmyra, too, said something was amiss.
“I’d take her to gymnastics,” said the human resource worker at St. John’s Home. “She’d come off the mat in tears and say she had a headache.”
Lizzy had just gotten over a bad case of strep, Andrea said. Her pediatrician told her it could be a complication from that. She was prescribed medication that was supposed to relieve the excruciating headache within 48 to 72 hours.
The pain got worse.
“She was in her bed at night crying and screaming in agony,” her mother said.
Lizzy was sent for a CAT scan.
June 3 is a date Jim will never forget.
“The doctor said ‘I don’t want you to freak out, but she has a mass,’” Jim recalls.
It was a parent’s worst fear.
Andrea said she felt like she was in the scene of a bad horror movie.
Lizzy Spencer’s favorite colors are lime green and blue — she loves to draw what she sees in the sky. Someday, this 8-year-old plans to be an artist.
But for now, the little girl who enjoys cuddling with her cat, FDR, and whose smile can light up a room, has a big challenge.
Lizzy’s in the fight of her life against brain cancer.
“My mom’s Aunt Wally had (cancer),” she said. “She died because of her cancer. It made me a little sad. But my parents said I could get better from it.”
Something’s not right
This spring, Lizzy, who never complained about anything, her mother, Andrea said, started getting headaches. Those headaches quickly came more frequently — and were getting more excruciating.
“I was doing yoga in gym,” Lizzy said. “I was doing the child’s pose, and it really hurt my head.”
The pose, she demonstrated, is where she kneels on the floor with her hands stretched straight out behind her. She leans forward until her forehead touches the floor.
“I felt really tired, and in class, I told my teacher I didn’t feel good,” she said. “Every day, my head hurt really bad.”
In May, things took a turn for the worst.
Her father, Jim, who lives in Fairport, said he knew something was just not right with his little girl.
“When you look at kids, they have this light in their eyes,” said the Greece-Olympia teacher. “I know there’s something wrong when the light goes out of her eyes.”
Andrea, who lives in Palmyra, too, said something was amiss.
“I’d take her to gymnastics,” said the human resource worker at St. John’s Home. “She’d come off the mat in tears and say she had a headache.”
Lizzy had just gotten over a bad case of strep, Andrea said. Her pediatrician told her it could be a complication from that. She was prescribed medication that was supposed to relieve the excruciating headache within 48 to 72 hours.
The pain got worse.
“She was in her bed at night crying and screaming in agony,” her mother said.
Lizzy was sent for a CAT scan.
June 3 is a date Jim will never forget.
“The doctor said ‘I don’t want you to freak out, but she has a mass,’” Jim recalls.
It was a parent’s worst fear.
Andrea said she felt like she was in the scene of a bad horror movie.
Life became a whirlwind, Jim said, as Lizzy was rushed to the hospital. There, the family met with doctors. There were three possibilities — only one wasn’t cancer.
The rapid growth of the mass caused a buildup of fluid in the area of the tumor, causing Lizzy’s headaches.
She was admitted into Golisanno Children's Hospital in Rochester and was scheduled to have the tumor removed that Monday.
But over the weekend, fluid built up again.
“It was like being on an episode of ‘ER’” Andrea said. “In emergency, they had to put a tube in her head to release the pressure and sudden buildup of spinal fluid.”
On June 6, Lizzy was prepped and had surgery to remove the two-inch tumor on her cerebellum.
“It was kinda hard because I had four IV’s in my arm,” she said, admitting that she was scared, “But then there were visitors, and I felt happy because they were there and my parents were there to support me.”
Doctors are confident they removed the entire medulloblastoma tumor. But, a film of cancerous material over the tumor needed to be blasted by radiation.
“That and the high rate of growth put Lizzy in a high risk category for it to come back,” Jim said.
Lizzy’s fight
For the past seven weeks, Lizzy and her family have driven to the Wilmont Cancer Center in Rochester for intense radiation five days a week, coupled with chemotherapy one day a week.
She has another week of treatments, then a month off to let her body recuperate before she starts a year-long regimen of chemotherapy. Once a month, Lizzy and her family will spend three to four days at the hospital.
To an 8-year-old, a year seems like a lifetime.
“It made me tired because this is going through a really, really long time,” she said. “This is going to take forever.”
But looking at a potential cure, her parents look at the year as the gift of Lizzy’s life.
They just take things one day at a time.
When Lizzy’s hair began to fall out, Jim looked at his daughter and said “honey, let’s go get this taken care of.”
“I will, if you will,” she told him.
Jim had hair longer than his daughter’s shoulder-length tresses.
Side by side, the two sheared their locks. Jim gave his daughter his ponytail to keep. Her smile lit up the room.
“She’s been such a trooper,” Andrea said. “She’s been through a lot — several surgeries, poking and prodding. It’s been tough to keep her spirit up, but she’s done it. All she wants to do is be a kid and do what an 8-year-old does.”
Facing the “C” word
Just after Labor Day, Lizzy will be like any other kid, starting third grade in Jo Mannix’s class at Pal-Mac Intermediate School. If she can’t make it to class because of treatments, Lizzy’s big brother, Jon, a fifth-grader in the same school, will set a big stuffed bear in her seat. Homework, notes and the like will be put in the bear’s backpack to be taken home to Lizzy.
The Spencers are very open about Lizzy’s condition.
“People tend to freak out when you say the word ‘cancer,’” Jim said. “We want everyone to know what’s going on so there’s no manufacturing fears about what’s going on with Lizzy.”
Unless it’s cold, Lizzy doesn’t wear a hat or wig when she goes out in public. She wears the four-inch scar down the base of her skull with courage and pride. People she meets are blinded, instead, by her dazzling smile that runs from her lips up to her cheeks and into the corners of her eyes. She uses that smile, Jim said, to disarm people who may be put off by her scar or lack of hair.
Lizzy is facing and besting the beast, head on.
“We don’t want anyone to be scared to say anything to her,” Jim said.
Her father began a Facebook page called “Lizzy’s Fight” that chronicles his daughter’s journey through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy — and life outside of cancer.
“We’re still the same people,” he said. “We’re just going through a tough trip.”
The response from people around the world has been overwhelming, Andrea said, adding, “everyone cares about Lizzy.”
Jim agrees.
“We’re going through, as a parent, the worst nightmare and there’s overwhelming support from all over the place,” he said. “Thank you for caring about my little girl.”
Even international singing sensation Bobby McFerrin knows about Lizzy.
“I looked on Grandma’s computer for ‘be happy’ and found the song ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’,” Lizzy said.
After watching an online video of the song, it became her mantra.
The motto is printed on T-shirts and lime green bracelets that have been made up to help the family pay for medical expenses.
McFerrin, who was touring in South America, took the time to pass along to Lizzy that when he’s sad, he likes to sing and she should try doing that.
In addition to a fundraiser at the Palmyra Community Center on Sunday, a golf tournament at Victor Hills Golf Club has been set for Sunday, Sept. 25, with a deadline to register of Sept. 12. “Lizzy Rocks”, a multi-band benefit at the Lovin’ Cup Cafe is being planned for Oct. 9. Details about all the events can be found at Lizzy’s Fight on Facebook.
Lizzy’s parents, who grew up in Palmyra, say they always knew they lived in a great community. But the support from people to help make these events possible — even from people they didn’t even know — has been phenomenal, Andrea said.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ when I saw the T-shirts and bracelets,” she said. “I’m seeing people with the green bracelets, and I know, that’s for my Elizabeth. I know she’s not alone in all of this.”
