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Hannah Munro
submitted by her father, Dave Munro

Although born under urgent circumstances, Hannah flourished. I remember Hannah’s first word - "Bear". She said it as we went back to the car where she had left her favourite bear on the dash. I snuggled her in her car seat and her sweet voice filled my head with joy.

Her first year passed. Hannah grew steadily, but was very petite. Like most kids, Hannah got colds and was ill from time to time. But suddenly Hannah became very ill. We were devastated in hearing the news that our tiny Angel had cancer. How could she have cancer? She wasn’t even two-years old.

In December 1995, Hannah was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. She endured six courses of high dose chemotherapy. Her second birthday marked the last day of her chemotherapy, but the first day of her radiation treatment. The doctors always felt Hannah was "a good candidate for a cure". One last procedure, though very experimental at the time, could cure her for good. On July 22, 1996 Hannah had a stem cell transplant.

A stem cell transplant is like a rescue. They use very high doses of chemotherapy to wipe out all the cancer cells. Unfortunately chemotherapy can’t tell the difference between good cells and cancer cells, so not only do you lose all your cells, but it takes out your bone marrow too. Without bone marrow a person can’t survive. Hannah had to be rescued from certain death and the stem cells, it was believed, would grow to become the bone marrow needed for her to survive.

It’s been 7 years, but I can still remember taking Hannah to her first day of school. She was so eager to go, eager to play and learn and … be a kid.
Hannah is now an active, playful, creative eight-year-old young girl. She enjoys her dance classes. She enjoys camp. She enjoys being a kid, learning, laughing and loving life.

Candlelighters helps families like Hannah’s cope with the devastation of childhood cancer in many ways; providing the most current information on childhood cancers and their treatments, offering support, advocating for children with cancer, promoting research and by raising awareness.