By: Jivanto Van Hemert
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Jivanto Van Hemert
Volunteers at Light the Night show their display of lighted balloons.
On Saturday, Oct. 2, Salve will play host to an event in conjunction with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. “Light the Night” is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s local fundraising event to pay tribute and bring hope to people battling cancer. Thousands of participants raise funds for vital, lifesaving research and patient services. On these lighted nights, participants carry illuminated balloons in a show to support their caring community.
This year will be the 12th annual Light the Night event in Rhode Island. This year will mark over a decade of Rhode Islanders and Salve students working to raise funds to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s efforts to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma and provide education and services for patients and their families. This year’s two-mile walk honors patients’ Providence Fire Chief George S. Farrell and nine-year-old Nickolas Williams. Upon becoming Chief, Farrell a 30-year veteran of the fire department, initiated a required base line physical for all Providence Fire Fighters. After helping many fire fighters with their personal health issues Chief Farrell took his turn at the doctor’s office. He was then shockingly diagnosed with CML (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia). The second honored patient to this year’s event is Nickolas Williams. According to the Light the Night website, when Williams was three years old, he started getting sick. It began with Bronchitis, then double ear infections, strep throat –normal kid things. His family didn’t think anything of it, until he developed fevers, bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, and unexplained joint pain. After a battery of tests, the doctors were still unable to come to a diagnosis. On that “beautiful summer day in August of 2005, Williams was running a continual fever, he couldn’t walk, and he was crying out in pain constantly,” said Williams mother in a quote on the Light the Night website. On that day, Williams was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Now more than five years after his diagnosis, and successful completion of chemotherapy, Nick is a striving third grader. Williams is winning his battle against “The Big C”, and with events like Light the Night, held by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to continuing this trend of defeating cancers, and bettering the lives of all patients.
