KEEPSAKE AVAILABLE BY GIVING TO CANCER SOCIETY

Lexi Ramsey, 5, will be getting one Christmas present a little early this year.

Next week, Lexi's doctors will perform surgery to remove a catheter through which she has received chemotherapy treatments for leukemia for the last three years.

Lexi was 2 when she was diagnosed with cancer. Last Christmas was the first she spent at home instead of in the hospital, after doctors learned her cancer is in remission. This Christmas she won't even have the catheter in her chest to remind her of her illness.

Lexi and her mother, Marilyn Ramsey, are celebrating by heading up the Love Lights A Tree campaign again this year for the local American Cancer Society.

A keepsake ornament is available for a $25 donation to the American Cancer Society. The ornament can be inscribed in honor of or as a memorial to someone, and may be displayed on the ACS tree in the Holiday of Lights Tour in Cape County Park North or delivered.

"It's a little shrimpy tree," Ramsey said. "It looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but there are a lot of ornaments on it."

For ordering information, call the ACS at 334-9197.

Lexi's looking forward to Santa's visit. She said she has specially requested "a white Starcastle, a purple Starcastle and a blue Jenny Gymnast."

"She's doing great," Ramsey said. "She's gone into remission and her bone marrow's free, which is great."

Doctors say there is a 75 percent chance Lexi will remain cancer-free. For the next five years, she will have checkups every six months to make sure the cancer has not returned.

Last year the Love Lights A Tree campaign raised $3,000. So far this year, Ramsey said, $1,500 has been collected.

She hopes Lexi will be able to start kindergarten next year. "It's been bad news in the past, but this year it's all great," she said.