Emi Lun
Each year, I looked forward to the Band of Parents’ annual letter. I wasn’t just reading updates – I was searching for hope.
I searched every story for someone who was just a little farther down the road than we were, wondering if our family might get there too. I never imagined that one day I’d be asked to write one.
Like so many families, our journey didn’t begin with one obvious sign. It began with low-grade fevers, irritability, loss of appetite, and months of searching for answers. Then one day, our happy, energetic little girl refused to walk.
Just days before our daughter Emi’s third birthday, our search for answers ended with a diagnosis we never saw coming: Stage IV High-Risk Neuroblastoma. While still in the hospital, we sought a second opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering. After doing our research, we knew it was where Emi needed to be. Within days, we transferred her care and became part-time New Yorkers.
What followed was everything no child should ever have to endure: months of chemotherapy, a 12-hour resection surgery, proton radiation, 3F8 immunotherapy, a treatment funded by Band of Parents, along with transfusions, scans, and countless days in the hospital. In March 2024, we heard the words we’d been praying for: “No evidence of disease” (NED). Five weeks later, after welcoming our second daughter into the world, our joy quickly turned back into fear when Emi relapsed.
We returned to the life we thought we had left behind: chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hospital stays, and the uncertainty of waiting to see if treatment was working. Nine months later, Emi was once again NED and able to begin the Band of Parents-funded neuroblastoma vaccine at Memorial Sloan Kettering from the start.
Today, Emi is in first grade and loves dance. She’s endlessly creative, spending hours coloring, painting, and dreaming up new outfits for her Barbies. Most of all, she loves being a big sister. She takes her role as Lili’s “little mommy” very seriously, and Lili wants to do everything her big sister does.
This is the life Band of Parents helps make possible.
Throughout our journey, Band of Parents has been so much more than an organization. They’ve been a community that understands this life in a way no one else can. They celebrated our victories, carried us through our hardest days, and funded the research that gives children like Emi more hope.
If you’re reading this from a hospital room or sitting beside your child during treatment, searching for proof that hope could be real, I hope our story can be that for you. And if you’re able, I hope you’ll help make a story like ours possible for another family.
To every donor, researcher, volunteer, and supporter – thank you for believing in families like ours. Your generosity has helped fund lifesaving research, built a community no family should have to navigate alone, and given children like Emi the chance to simply be kids. As we recognize Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, thank you for standing with children and families facing neuroblastoma. Because of you, we have more than hope. We have reasons to believe in tomorrow.
With Gratitude,
Melissa, David, Emi, and Lili
