Police, friends help out 3-year-old Braintree girl with cancer

Patrice Kelly cut off much of her 3-year-old daughter Charlotte's hair to spare her the sight of watching it fall out during chemotherapy.

“She says her sick hair is gone and when her hair comes back, she’s going to be better,” Patrice Kelly said, quoting Charlotte.

In June, Charlotte Kelly was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that usually strikes children under age 10. It began with a tumor on her abdomen and then spread to her bone marrow.

To help the family, the group Cops for Kids With Cancer presented the Kellys with a check for $5,000 on Thursday at Braintree police headquarters. The two unions representing the town’s police officers added another $1,000.

The money is to help the Kellys make up for lost income and cover added expenses of Charlotte’s treatment.

Her mother said Charlotte is responding well to treatment, with the tumor shrinking to half its size. She still faces more chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, a stem cell transplant and follow-up therapy.

“The indications are for a happy outcome,” Patrice Kelly said.

She said the experience of having a child with cancer is “almost your worst nightmare. But the good you see from people is humbling and overwhelming. The support and prayers are everything.”

Owen Kelly, 8, added his own words of thanks.

“I love her so much. I feel so bad for her,” he said of Charlotte.

The chairman of the group, retired Boston police Superintendent-in-Chief Robert Faherty, had some gifts for Charlotte, Owen and brother Shane, 5, including hats and T-shirts. Charlotte got a Boston police teddy bear and a larger one that can replay voices of family and friends.

“That’s big!” a smiling Charlotte said after Faherty presented the bear.

The group was formed seven years ago when the late John Dow, a retired Boston police captain, and Detective Pat Hanlon of the Garda, Ireland, national police, put together a fundraising golf tournament for law enforcement officers on both sides of the Atlantic. This year’s edition is Sept. 24 at Labaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville.

Faherty said the group’s purpose is to take care of families that have a child with cancer and are having financial difficulty.

So far this year, the group has given out more than $100,000 to families in the state and to pediatric cancer units at Massachusetts General Hospital and New England Medical Center.

All the money raised goes to either families or the hospitals, he said.

The Braintree police ice hockey team played in a tournament this past spring to benefit the charity and has supported the group for years, said Canton police Lt. Helena Findlen, its president.

The Kellys are the first Braintree family helped by the group, she said.

“It’s nice to be able to give back to a town that has supported us so much,” Findlen said.

For Charlotte, Thursday’s presentation was a chance to show her dance moves and chase her brothers though the police station meeting room. Earlier this year, the cancer kept her off her feet for a couple of months.

Patrice Kelly plans to lead a team in Sunday’s Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk named “Prayers for Charlotte.”

Other events for Cops for Kids With Cancer include a concert tonight by Pauline Wells, a Cambridge police sergeant and wife of Milton Police Chief Richard Wells Jr., at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston.

More information is available on the group’s Web site www.copsforkidswithcancer.