Parents rocked by the sudden cancer diagnosis for the 2-year-old son, then overjoyed at his recovery after months of radiation and chemotherapy, are asking for your help to pay their miracle forward. They'd like you to help them Bleed for Reed.
Because Reed Teakell is the now 4 1/2 year old cancer-free survivor who needed multiple blood transfusions during his fight against nephroblastoma. "At two, you have a very limited vocabulary, and so all he could say was my tummy hurts," his mom Stephanie told us from their home in Grapevine. "The layman's term for it is Wilms tumor. The medical name for it is nephroblastoma. Kidney cancer."
But Reed's condition was doubly complicated. He had tumors in both kidneys. Doctors removed nearly half of each kidney. He endured six radiation treatments and 17 rounds of chemotherapy.
"The whole time you're just thinking this has to be a dream," said his dad Clark Teakell. "Because just two days ago, you have a healthy kid. Now you're sitting in ICU, and your kid is motionless on a breathing machine. You can't even describe it. You don't think it's even real."
"It has changed our perspective on life," Stephanie said. "Absolutely," Clark answered. "It gives your life a different purpose."
They began searching for that purpose when they realized their little boy would be one of the lucky ones. Children with a Wilms tumor diagnosis have an 80 percent survival rate. But Reed's survival took extensive surgery, months of treatment, and an untold number of people who donated the blood and platelets and plasma to get him through.
"Our son Reed's life was saved by people we don't even know. I don't know who donated the blood for Reed. So he was saved by people we never met," his dad said. "You have a need to give back to those people. You have the need to give back in whatever way you can."
And their campaign to give back is called "Bleed for Reed." They've had two blood drives so far, one at Stephanie's work office and a second at Clark's, and this Sunday, a third at their church, Fellowship of the Parks in Grapevine. Their goal is to get at least 100 new blood donors.
'When people hear childhood cancer, they think how can I help," Clark Teakell said. "Reed did not go through all this, Reed did not lay in a hospital bed for a month at a time for it to not have a purpose." Their purpose now, with your help, is to give the next little cancer fighter just as much of a fighting chance as their son had. "And that's what drives it. I really do think so," said Stephanie.
Fellowship of the Parks
1901 Hall-Johnson Rd.
Grapevine, TX 76051
Sunday, July 2 from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 pm