PHS freshman brings attention to childhood cancer

Freshman shaves head in honor of childhood cancer victims

The first thing you might notice right now about ChyAnne Bartoe is her head. She's bald; she's shaved her hair to raise awareness of childhood cancer. But her passion for fighting this disease lies in her heart.

The 15-year-old Perryville High School freshman said she was inspired to shave her head by the efforts of the St. Baldrick Foundation. Because kids with cancer often lose their hair during treatment, "shavees" for the St. Baldrick's Foundation show their support by shaving their heads voluntarily, and inspiring friends and family to donate money to support childhood cancer research.

ChyAnne is collecting donations to send to St. Baldrick Foundation to help in the fight against childhood cancer and to fund research. Her mom Maria owns the Mississippi Mud in Altenburg, so she's placed donation cans there and at other East End locations.

"My sister has had cancer for nine years and she's 18 now," she said. "And a family friend lost her 5-month old baby to cancer last year. Children shouldn't have to suffer from such a terrible disease, but so many do. It makes me feel good for people to ask why I shaved my head and I can explain to them that they can help end childhood cancer."

ChyAnne's art teacher, Richard Conaway, said he was impressed that she was willing to take such a drastic step to educate her friends and classmates about childhood cancers.

"It's a big thing for a high school girl to shave all her hair off," he said. "When she talks about how cancer has affected her family and children she knows, you can hear the sadness and passion in her voice. I applaud her efforts to share St. Baldrick's mission with others."

ChyAnne couldn't participate in an official St. Baldrick's event in March that she wanted to attend in St. Louis, but she didn't let that stop her. With her mother's permission, a friend shaved ChyAnne's beautiful brunette locks.

"It felt funny at first, but now I actually like it," she laughed. "I hope that people see me or hear about it and take a minute to learn how they can help in the fight against cancers that are affecting kids. I learned that more children die of cancer than any other disease -- more than AIDS, diabetes, asthma, cystic fibrosis and genetic anomalies combined -- and I think that shocks people.

"Even kids who survive their cancer have problems later in life because of their treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, so St. Baldrick funds research to help them, too."

Because of the treatments they had as kids, by the time they're in their 30s or 40s, more than 73% of survivors will have a chronic health problem and 42% will have severe or life-threatening conditions, according to St. Baldrick Foundation.

St. Baldrick's volunteers like ChyAnne raised more than $30 million in 2012 by shaving heads and raising funds , whiched allowed the foundation to mark a milestone--$100 million in childhood cancer research grants since 2005.

For more information or to donate to St. Baldrick Foundation, visit http://www.stbaldricks.org/.