Mackey Foundation brings awareness to pediatric cancer

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LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Cancer is the No. 1 cause of death by disease in children. After losing two children to cancer, one Lafayette family is using their tragedy to give back.

Lafayette resident Joe Mackey said his daughter Claire was always the center of attention.

“Clarie had this really wonderful, outgoing personality,” Mackey said. “She had just turned 15. So she was one of those beautiful, little teenage girls that was, you know, me, me, me.”

His son Patrick, a little more reserved, was a football player at Central Catholic High School.

“Patrick was strong. He was an athlete,” said Mackey. “He was in the prime of his life.”

But now, all Mackey and his wife Tami have are memories.

“So two very different types of cancer, Mackey explained. “One very quick acting. One very slow and yet aggressive.”

Mackey said Claire was diagnosed with an acute form of Leukemia in June of 2011.

“It was a very quick cancer. It was very fast acting, very aggressive, and her 15-year-old body just could not hold up,” expressed Mackey.

She died just two days after her diagnosis.

Less than two years after his sister’s death, Patrick was diagnosed with Leukemia but immediately began treatment.

Those eight months of treatment took its toll.

“He was immunosuppressed,” Mackey said. “His body could not stop the infection that set in.”

Two and a half years after losing their daughter, the Mackeys lost Patrick to the same disease. He said their children showed no symptoms until right before diagnosis.

“By the time a child is diagnosed with a cancer, the cancer is in an advanced state,” he said.

Mackey said after paying Patrick’s final expenses, the family had more than $13,000 in community donations remaining. After talking with Patrick’s friends, they decided to use the money to make a difference in the lives of other families dealing with pediatric cancer.

“We’re going to change lives. We’re going to save lives. And that’s the mindset that we all went into when we came to Joe and Tammy, and said this is what we want to do,” Patrick’s best friend Mason Fisher said. “We’re done standing on the sidelines. We want to play the game.”

Since its creation earlier this year, the Claire E. and Patrick G. Mackey Children’s Cancer Foundation has given $8,000 worth of $100 gift cards to families at Riley Hospital for Children. However, the foundation strives to bring more attention to the need for pediatric cancer research.

“We need promising researchers, prominent researchers, institutions to begin to adopt advanced pediatric cancer science,” Mackey said.

He wants to improve treatments for children and raise awareness for all pediatric cancers.

“We can change the timeline, but it will take adults,” expressed Mackey. “Adults with cancer, adults who are cancer survivors, adults who have been health care providers to stop and look at what’s actually going on in the pediatric world.”

And until that time comes, Mackey said the foundation will continue to raise money and awareness for the disease that took two of his children.

Fox’s Pizza Den in Lafayette will be hosting the “Block Out Cancer” Block Party, a fundraiser for the Claire E. and Patrick G. Mackey Children’s Cancer Foundation. It will be an all-day event, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., taking place on Saturday, Aug. 1 at Fox’s Pizza, 4921 State Road 26 E. Fox’s will donate 20 percent of the total net sales for the day.

For more information on the foundation or the charity block party, please visit the Mackey Children’s Foundation website.

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