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October 22, 2009

Friends rally to help Webb City 5-year-old battling leukemia

By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Mikayla Bassett is recovering from the flu.

Unlike other 5-year-olds, she won’t be heading back to school once she’s well. Instead, she faces a long stay in a Kansas City hospital after a bone marrow transplant that doctors hope will keep her leukemia in remission.

Meanwhile, family and friends in the Joplin area are putting on a 5-kilometer run Saturday to benefit Mikayla and her family.

“It has been a crazy year for them,” said Divine Aquino, a family friend. “We’re just a bunch of family and friends who love them dearly, and we want to do something for them.”

Registration for the 5K run will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday at Landreth Park in Joplin. Aquino, one of the organizers, said there also will be a light breakfast and a raffle.

Mikayla was diagnosed in July with acute myeloid leukemia and initially faced seven months of chemotherapy, said her father, Michael Bassett.

But when her doctors determined that she stands a higher risk of future recurrences of leukemia, they shortened her chemotherapy treatments to three months and ordered a bone marrow transplant, which they hope will reduce that risk.

The donor is Mikayla’s brother, Malachi, who just turned 1.

The Bassetts found out last week that Mikayla’s leukemia is in remission. But the transplant was pushed back because Mikayla fell ill sometime after finishing her chemotherapy, Michael Bassett said.

“We’re going to battle the flu now for three to four weeks,” he said Tuesday.

Doctors have scheduled the transplant for Nov. 10, Bassett said. Mikayla will stay in the hospital for about three months to reduce the risk of complications.

If the transplant is successful, and if Mikayla is still in remission five years from now, she will likely be diagnosed as cured, Bassett said.

Bassett said Mikayla’s illness has reorganized the family’s life. Since July, he and his wife, Rea, have alternated between staying with Mikayla at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and staying home in Webb City with their remaining three children.

“When she got sick, it kind of changed how we operate in life,” Michael Bassett said.

On Wednesday, the Bassetts moved to a Ronald McDonald House in Kansas City so they can be near Mikayla during her recovery. Bassett said he plans to return to Webb City with his children in January so they can re-enter school. In the meantime, he said, they will continue their education through a home program in cooperation with their teachers or through home schooling.

Bassett said he hopes to take his family, including Mikayla, to Joplin on Saturday for the 5K run. But Mikayla’s presence will depend on whether she gets a temporary release from the hospital, he said.

Saturday’s event isn’t the first time people have rallied for the Bassetts. A group of Webb City girls raised more than $1,000 from lemonade stands over the summer.

In July, workers at the Busy Bee Academy preschool, which Mikayla attended, organized a fundraiser at Skateland in Webb City. Busy Bee workers also sponsored a barbecue and auction benefit for the Bassetts in August.

And last weekend, Carl Richard’s Bowl East, where Mikayla’s grandmother Billie Bassett works, put on a bowl-a-thon for Mikayla.

Michael Bassett said that extra money has been “extremely helpful” to the family.

“If we hadn’t had the fundraisers, we would have lost our house by now,” he said. “We’re still coming up with ways to thank the people who have had the fundraisers.”

Bassett said he plans to use the remainder of donations for basic living costs, such as clothing for his children.



Want to help?

As of Tuesday, about 60 people had registered for Saturday’s 5K run benefit for Mikayla Bassett. “It’s not too late to just show up and register right then and there,” said Divine Aquino, a family friend. Aquino said donations to Mikayla’s family also may be made online at www.mikaylasfight.bbnow.org.

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