2024 Honored Angel: Masey
Nickname: Moose.
Most often called, Masey Moose.
She was a strong, sassy, stubborn five-year-old. She loved snuggles, funny jokes, hanging with her friends and family, playing house, art projects, sneaking candy and could quote the entire movie “Despicable Me”.
Masey’s Story
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, three-year-old Masey “Moose” was diagnosed with cancer. She had been ill all summer with fevers and tired, etc. So, her mother, Meagan took her in to see her primary doctor. This visit evolved into a 19-day hospital stay and a life altering diagnosis. Scans and tests at the American Family Children's Hospital (AFCH) resulted in a diagnosis of the most advanced form of a rare Pleuropulmonary Blastoma or PPB, a rare lung tumor, most common in children under the age of seven years.
The team at AFCH supported Masey through more than 25 cycles of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, as well as countless nights in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), many inpatient stays, a lobectomy, and 23 radiation treatments.
Finally, on October 14, 2021, Masey was deemed cancer free! Sadly, on November 8, less than a month later, Masey returned to the hospital for routine follow up scans. The scans showed a lesion growing from an old tumor on her humeral bone. The biopsy returned as cancerous; her Pleuropulmonary Blastoma was back.
In 2022, Masey received 12 more cycles of chemotherapy from multiple different treatment protocols and nine more radiation treatments. She also started and ended one clinical trial.
In 2023, Masey started a second clinical trial in Minneapolis with the PPB Registry. Masey and her mom traveled back and forth to Minnesota from
southern Wisconsin many times over the next four months. Sadly, the clinical trial didn’t work, and Masey withdrew after 4 cycles when her scans
showed the tumors in her lungs and throughout her body continued to grow.
Masey received her angel wings on April 20, 2023, and will be our “Forever Five Angel," but Masey's legacy lives on as she donated one of her tumors to the PPB Registry in March of 2023. Children's Minnesota continues to learn from these tumor samples donated for research for years, sometimes even decades after they are donated. Initially, they study them when they are donated, but can also study emerging ideas and potential therapies using these banked samples. They can even share them with other researchers who may have different ideas so that we can all learn the most together.
Masey is another reminder how every journey matters.
Most often called, Masey Moose.
She was a strong, sassy, stubborn five-year-old. She loved snuggles, funny jokes, hanging with her friends and family, playing house, art projects, sneaking candy and could quote the entire movie “Despicable Me”.
Masey’s Story
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, three-year-old Masey “Moose” was diagnosed with cancer. She had been ill all summer with fevers and tired, etc. So, her mother, Meagan took her in to see her primary doctor. This visit evolved into a 19-day hospital stay and a life altering diagnosis. Scans and tests at the American Family Children's Hospital (AFCH) resulted in a diagnosis of the most advanced form of a rare Pleuropulmonary Blastoma or PPB, a rare lung tumor, most common in children under the age of seven years.
The team at AFCH supported Masey through more than 25 cycles of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, as well as countless nights in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), many inpatient stays, a lobectomy, and 23 radiation treatments.
Finally, on October 14, 2021, Masey was deemed cancer free! Sadly, on November 8, less than a month later, Masey returned to the hospital for routine follow up scans. The scans showed a lesion growing from an old tumor on her humeral bone. The biopsy returned as cancerous; her Pleuropulmonary Blastoma was back.
In 2022, Masey received 12 more cycles of chemotherapy from multiple different treatment protocols and nine more radiation treatments. She also started and ended one clinical trial.
In 2023, Masey started a second clinical trial in Minneapolis with the PPB Registry. Masey and her mom traveled back and forth to Minnesota from
southern Wisconsin many times over the next four months. Sadly, the clinical trial didn’t work, and Masey withdrew after 4 cycles when her scans
showed the tumors in her lungs and throughout her body continued to grow.
Masey received her angel wings on April 20, 2023, and will be our “Forever Five Angel," but Masey's legacy lives on as she donated one of her tumors to the PPB Registry in March of 2023. Children's Minnesota continues to learn from these tumor samples donated for research for years, sometimes even decades after they are donated. Initially, they study them when they are donated, but can also study emerging ideas and potential therapies using these banked samples. They can even share them with other researchers who may have different ideas so that we can all learn the most together.
Masey is another reminder how every journey matters.