Lynn family to hold benefit for ill 2-year-old daughter

LYNN – Two-year-old Skyla Blaney has spent most of the last seven months in the hospital, but her family still looks forward to a day when she will be healthy and her treatment will be over.The toddler’s mother, Christen Crosby, a Lynn English graduate and lifelong city resident, says her daughter has endured a litany of medical procedures – including four rounds of chemotherapy – since being diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma in April.”She’s still clearly very sick and she still has more radiation coming,” Crosby said during a recent interview. “I wish I could say she’s better, but we have a long ways to go.”In addition to the chemotherapy, Skyla has had a stem cell transplant and stopped walking once the disease set in, and has to be fed through a feeding tube.But the girl’s parents hope she will regain the ability to walk and talk once the treatment is complete.”They do believe she’s going to walk again, but it’s going to take many months of therapy,” Crosby said. “She’s a fighter, she’s my strong little fighter.”Their daughter’s illness has taken an emotional and financial toll on the family, according to Crosby, who spends much of her days traveling to and from Boston so she can be with Skyla. She and other family members have spent many nights sleeping in Skyla’s room at the hospital.”We have to stay positive. We have to take one step at a time and one day at a time,” Crosby said. “It’s very heart-wrenching to us and it was devastating when we learned about the diagnosis. But it’s a part of our life and we have to do what’s best for Skyla.”The family, along with friends and relatives, are holding a benefit and silent auction to raise money to help pay for Skyla’s medical treatment on Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving.The event will be held at St. Michael’s Hall at 25 Elmwood Ave. in Lynn from 7 p.m.-midnight.Skyla’s grandmother, Susan Blaney, is organizing the benefit. Tickets are $10.There will be a silent auction with a variety of items to bid on, including a few weekends away, a trip to North Conway, N.H., along with tickets to Bruins and Celtics games.”I just made a whole lot of phone calls and a lot of people have stepped up to help us with the benefit,” Susan Blaney said Friday.Despite her granddaughter’s diagnosis, Susan Blaney says she is trying to stay positive.”She tried to stand yesterday,” Susan Blaney said about Skyla on Friday. “I was there for that.”Neuroblastoma is a cancer of the nervous system, according to Dr. Johannes Wolff, the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Tufts Medical Center.Many family doctors have trouble diagnosing the type of cancer, but for pediatric oncologists, it is not uncommon, Wolff said.”It is an aggressive disease,” Wolff said during an interview Friday. “Pediatric cancers are all very, very aggressive. They are all more aggressive than adult cancers.”But on the positive side, Wolff said the cure rates for pediatric cancers are higher than adult cancers.”Our treatments are more aggressive than for adult cancers,” Wolff said.Intensive chemotherapy is the standard protocol for treating Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, according to Wolff, who acknowledged it is a difficult thing for any child to endure.”It is a terrible thing, you can’t make (patients) comfortable,” Wolff said. “You can make it less horrible, but it’s still horrible.”Chemotherapy is when cancer-killing medication is “given in all of the body,” Wolff said.Doctors don’t know exactly how the cancer-killing drugs work, but they know there’s also side effects, some temporary – like nausea and hair loss – and some can be permanent – like hearing loss and heart damage.Wolff said the amount of time that passes once a child is diagnosed can be a factor in the child’s recovery.” ? The longer out from the diagnosis, the better it is,” he said.Skyla was diagnosed in April when she was just 17 months old, her mother said. Skyla’s belly was extended, she had been walking, but she stopped and she was laying down a