Stephanie was an average 10-year-old girl who loved doing gymnastics and makeup. She kept getting fevers and stomach aches at school, and we figured it was normal daycare/school bugs and chalked it up to that…until they became more frequent. After a few doctor appointments,they wanted her to do blood work. We went for the blood work on a Friday afternoon, then to McDonald's like it was a normal day. We went home and started decorating for Christmas.

The next morning, Saturday, Steph woke up early and told me she didn't feel well…her stomach hurt. Around 7am, I got a phone call from her pediatrician saying I needed to get her to the pediatric emergency room for more testing ASAP and to also mention when I got there that her ANC was 0. I said ok, and we jumped in the car, not really panicking but definitely anxious.

We met a few different doctors, and Steph was admitted to run more tests. After about two weeks on 5J, on 12/20/22, the tests came back, and it turned out Stephanie had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Crohn's disease. After the dust settled and her amazing team got everything under control, we got to come home and celebrate a January Christmas - only to have many, many more hospital stays in our future. Too many scares to count - from methotrexate toxicity (which looked like a stroke initially) to the G-tube, fungal infections, NG tube, etc. The team always kept her smiling every day, no matter what was going on. Even when she was down to 39 pounds and couldn't eat, she was always smiling!! The gastrointestinal team had to work hand-in-handwith oncology and vice versa to battle these two terrible things at once.

On 04/27/25, Stephanie rang the bell in front of her family and all the friends she met along the way, including her team of doctors and nurses and her favorite Physician’s Assistant, Emily - all of whom are family now and always will be. Today Steph is back in school. She's up to 90 pounds and starts a biologic to manage her Crohn's. Everything PCFLV does makes her smile - from gift cards to Lehigh Valley Phantoms tickets to donuts and pizza at clinic - and the journey for the families so much easier! Thanks to everyone who got this warrior through.

Written by Stephanie’s dad, Dave

Please consider helping children with cancer and others in our community by scheduling a blood donation at Miller-Keystone Blood Center: https://donor.giveapint.org/donor/schedules/zip