When little Brooke
Bechman and Jude Anderson were fighting for their lives during cancer treatment, their families saw how blood transfusions helped pull them through.
Their chemotherapy treatments left Brooke, 5, and Jude, 2, extremely sick. There were days when they couldn’t walk because the drugs weakened them as it killed cancerous cells along with healthy ones.
But once they received blood transfusions, the children bounced back with strength and energy.
“It is so difficult what our kids have gone through,” recalled Barbara Anderson of her son, Jude, and his friend, Brooke.
Brooke’s mother, Sarah Bechman, cried when she remembered days her daughter was so weak she needed to carry her to the University of Arizona Medical Center-Diamond Children’s for the blood transfusions.
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To raise awareness that cancer patients need frequent transfusions, Bechman, 31, and Anderson, 36, organized a blood drive with the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The public drive is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday from 2 to 7 p.m. at the Foothills Mall Donor Center, 7401 N. La Cholla Boulevard.
“We empathize with others who are going through this ordeal, and we want to give back and help families,” explained Aidan Anderson, 36, Jude’s father, who is a helicopter pilot for the Arizona Army National Guard.
Families with children who have cancer endure intense, difficult moments — living at the hospital and preparing for doctors’ rounds, laboratory tests and treatments that change their sick children both emotionally and physically, said Aidan Anderson.
Parents see their children lose their hair, bloat from steroids and transform from sweet personalities into irritated patients because of the side effects of powerful drugs.
“I got strength from seeing Brooke deal with all of this. She helped me,” Caleb Bechman said of his daughter, whose brown-blondish hair is growing back nicely.
“The support from friends, family and strangers is something you come to rely on, and it feels great when you don’t have to ask for help because people are already there helping you,” Aidan Anderson said.
“We have been able to benefit from other people’s generosity, so we want to pay back through these blood drives,” said Caleb Bechman, 36, a supervisor for a cable company.
Brooke and Jude were diagnosed last October with acute lymphoblastic leukemia — the most common type of cancer in children.
It is a cancer that starts from white blood cells in the bone marrow where new blood cells are made. It has about an 85 to 90 percent cure rate, said Sarah Bechman, a former first-grade teacher.
Barbara Anderson, who quit her job at a commercial real-estate investment firm after Jude became ill, said both children are in remission.
Jude will remain in treatment for three more years, and Brooke for 1½ more years in hopes that the cancer does not return.
Both families, who were introduced by a mutual friend after their children were diagnosed, are enjoying taking their children to the park because they no longer are under isolation due to their weakened immune systems.
They plan on celebrating the holidays and special events, including Halloween — something Brooke and Jude missed last year, said Barbara Anderson.
And the two moms are planning for future blood drives in honor of their children, working to make it an annual event in Tucson in September — National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Some 13,400 children are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, according to the American Red Cross.
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