" I invite anyone who needs proof to come and watch what the gift of blood does for my daughter."

When three-year-old Arden Cantwell lost her hair, she cheerfully affixed a pink hairpiece to her baseball cap and flashed her famous grin. No one notices she is bald.

When she rides home in the back seat of her mom’s car after a grueling round of chemo, she sings and infuses everyone in the car with her undaunted spirit. No one notices she is sick.

It was September 12, 2006 when Kim Cantwell, noticed something awry with her three-year-old daughter. “Arden had not been feeling well and I noticed tiny red blood-filled dots all over her tummy and I raced her to the hospital ER. Doctors diagnosed her immediately with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

Kim says, “Too many white cells can do all sorts of bad things – they can clog up a child’s little circulation system and cause strokes, bleeding in the brain. We caught her in time; in fact she was asymptomatic and doctors believe the ALL had been in her system less than two weeks.”

Kim has seen first hand the awesome power of a blood transfusion. “To see your child, listless, tired, pale and grouchy when she needs a transfusion, and then to see what a unit of blood does is a wonderful thing. She perks up, gets happy, feels good, runs around.  It truly is amazing. I invite anyone who needs proof to come and watch what the gift of blood does for my daughter.”

Arden’s treatment is expected to continue for two years and nine months. She has been receiving an average of two units of blood per month, and she is only one of hundreds of children and adults in the STBTC service area who depend every day on blood donations to survive the rigors of cancer and its treatment.