BY JOSEPH FITZGERALD
jfitzgerald@woonsocketcall.com
CUMBERLAND — Representatives of Cops For Kids With Cancer Wednesday presented a $5,000 donation to the parents of Maya Spadano, a 3½-year-old Cumberland girl who has been battling leukemia.
Robert Faherty, chairman of the charity’s Board of Directors, along with Director John McManus, officially presented the check to the Spadano family at the Cumberland police station.
Cops For Kids With Cancer, a small non-profit organization made of law enforcement incur when their children are diagnosed with cancer.
Donations made to the organization are given directly to the families of the cancer patient to help deter day-to-day financial strains and make life easier in a stressful and emotional time.
On Dec. 26, 2010, Bob and Sherri Spadano received devastating news when they were told Maya had leukemia. The diagnosis came after weeks of wondering and worrying why the typically vibrant and energetic two-year-old was unable to bounce back from the fevers and viruses that were wreaking havoc on her system.
pawtuckettimes.com
NH cancer patient, 11, grateful for the help
Jan 17, 2012 10:55pm
(NECN: Lauren Collins: Nashua, N.H.) - There is nothing fun about battling cancer.
"Cancer treatment involves a lot more than you think. It's not just swallowing pills," says a very mature Stacey Lacroix. "Sometimes everything doesn't go as the doctor plans."
A life changing diagnosis helps put things in perspective, even when you're 11 years old.
"(I) just love to thank all the people who've been praying for me all these months," she said.
Stacey Lacroix and her mom Lillybeth, that circle of support got bigger Tuesday when the group Cops for Kids with Cancer presented them with a $5,000 check.
"When someone has cancer," says the group's chairman, Bob Faherty, "Everyone tries to do the cure, to cure cancer, but the families are forgotten."
Stacey was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia last June. In October, her mom lost her job. Just before Christmas the group Lucy's Love Bus, which was helping provide Stacey therapy, contacted Nashua police to see if they could help the family.
Not only did Cops for Kids with Cancer step up to cover bills and basic needs, the department's patrolmen's and supervisors' unions donated cash and gifts for the holidays. If all goes well, Stacey, with her megawatt smile and infectious personality, will get to start sixth grade next month.
"Every day we eat, we pay mortgage, we do everything," says Lillybeth. "I still don't know how we do it and I just want to thank all my angels out there."
Tags: Nashua, Lauren Collins, N.H., Stacy Lacroix, Cops for Kids with Cancer
Your Comments
“Captain Frank Armstrong of Area E-18 and his son John (15) on Kala Patar, elev. 18,337 feet, after a 15 day trek towards the base camp of Mt.Everest behind them. Armstrong has asked officers and friends of Cops for Kids with Cancer (P.O. Box 850956, Braintree, MA02185) to donate to the charity if he and his son made it to the base camp, which they did the following day.”
Mt Everest For CFKWC
On Friday, April 17th, 2009, my son, John (15) and I will be travelling to Lukla, Nepal to begin a 15 day trek to the base camp of Mt.Everest in support of Cops for Kids with Cancer. The base camp is at 17,900 feet, but we will have to ascend many peaks over 18, 000 feet and one at 19,000 feet in order to get there. We are asking officers and friends of Cops for Kidswith Cancer (P.O. Box 850956, Braintree, MA02185) to contribute $1.00 for every 1000 vertical feet we attain and to round off to $20.00 if we make it to the base camp. Please send this e-mail out to friends of Cops for Kids with Cancer.
Captain Frank Armstong
President Helina Findlen in a Canton Citizen Article about CFKWC (click image below)
Maddie Savoie
October 16, 2008
To our dear family and friends it is with deep deep sorrow that we let you know Maddie passed away in the hospital today. She passed peacefully in the arms of her mother surrounded by family and some of the wonderful doctors, nurses and friends who have been by our side throughout these past two years. There are no definitive plans as yet but most likely Maddie will be waked on Sunday at Ross Funeral home in Wrentham. The funeral will be Monday at Trinity church in Wrentham. While we will miss Maddie deeply we are grateful her struggle has ended and she is at peace with God and her friends in heaven. We love you all and thank you for being by her and our side throughout these past 2+ years.
Connors, Jamie Rose, age 17 of Readville, October 11, 2008. Beloved daughter of Thomas W. & Maureen A. (Cullen) Connors. Loving sister of Taylor Connors of Readville. Grandaughter of Elizabeth A. (Potts) Connors of Readville & the late John Connors, the late William J. & Mary (Houton) Cullen. Niece of John Connors of Readville, Virginia LaFaucci of Groveland, Maureen A. Mattos of Plymouth, Daniel Cullen of Marshfield, Frank, Rose, Kathleen and James Cullen all of Jamaica Plain, William J. and Eileen Cullen both of Roslindale and Kevin Cullen of Brighton. Also loved by numerous cousins, friends and other relatives. Funeral from the Brady & Fallon Funeral Home 10 Tower St. (Opp. Forest Hills MBTA Station) JAMAICA PLAIN on Thursday October 16 at 9:45 AM, followed by a Funeral Mass in Our Lady of Lourdes Church 14 Montebello Rd. Jamaica Plain at 10:30 AM. Relatives and friends are invited. Visiting hours Wednesday 4-8 PM. Interment St. Joseph Cemetery. Late student at the Academy of Pacific Rim, Hyde Park.
I am sorry to inform you that one of our Board of Directors and a dear friend, Fr. James Lane passed away this day, about 4:16 A.M. at Marion Manor in South Boston, after a losing battle with cancer. Fr Lane has been a friend and mentor for 45 years. I was in to see him Thursday and we talked about, "Cops For Kids With Cancer," a cause that was near and dear to his heart. Fr. Lane as ready to go home and see his mother, and had no fear of death. God was good and did not let him suffer. From what I understand he had a peaceful passing. . Bob Faherty
Father Lane will be waked from O'Brien and Sons Funeral Home, 146 Dorchester St. S. Boston, Ma. 02124, Monday July 30, 2007, from 2:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. On Tuesday, July 31, 2007, he will be waked at St. Brendan Church, 589 Gallivan Blvd. Dorchester, Ma. 02124, from 2:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. A funeral mass will take place Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 10:00 A.M. at St Brendan Church.
Rev. James H. Lane
Of South Boston, July 28, 2007. Beloved son of the late Herbert J. and Catherine R. (King) Lane. Dear brother of Helen C. Kehoe of Waltham, Marilyn R. Putney of Dedham, Rosemary Lane of Florida, Timothy Lane of Utah, Karen Lane of Newton & NH and Kevin Lane of Saugus. Graduate of South Boston High School, Class of 1952. Former Associate at St. Paul Church, Dorchester, 1962-1969; Associate at St. Brendan Church, Dorchester, 1969-1982; Pastor of St. Brendan Church, 1982-1996, Associate at St. Augustine Church, South Boston, 1996-2002. Late Chaplain of Roxbury Juvenile Court, Boston Juvenile Court, Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, First Chaplain of Boston Police Department, Boston Police Emerald Society, South Boston Irish American Society, Chaplain of the Retired Boston Police Officer's Association and COPS for Kids with Cancer. Visiting hours in The O'Brien Funeral Home, 146 Dorchester St., SOUTH BOSTON, Monday 2-8PM. Fr. Lane will lay in state in St. Brendan's Church, Tuesday 2-8PM. Pontifical Funeral Mass celebrated by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley in St. Brendan's Church, Wednesday 10:00AM. Relatives and friends invited. Interment New Calvary Cemetery, Dorchester. Korean War Army Veteran. Memorials may be sent to Retired Priests of Archdiocese of Boston, Regina Cleri, 60 William Cardinal O'Connell Way, Boston, MA 02114 or COPS for Kids with Cancer, c/o Robert Flaherty, P.O. Box 850956, Braintree, MA 02185.
Published in the Boston Globe on 7/29/2007.
Captain Frank Armstrong, Boston Police Department, Commander of Area E-18, Hyde Park, Ma. and his two sons, Fran, age 15 and John, age 13, have traveled to Moshi, Tanzania, Africa and reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the worlds tallest free standing mountain at 19,341 feet above sea level. Captain Armstrong and his sons have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in memory of Captain John V. Dow. (Retired Boston Police) who passed away on February 10, 2007. Captain Dow was one of the founders of COPS FOR KIDS WITH CANCER.
Captain Armstrong is asking Boston Officers and friends of COPS FOR KIDS WITH CANCER, for their support of this organization by pledging $1.00 for every 1000 feet of elevation climbed above sea level and upon a successful ascent of the summit, that a $20.00 donation be made out in memory of Captain John Dow to the COPS FOR KIDS WITH CANCER FUND, P.O. Box 850956, Braintree, Ma. 02185. Follow Frank’s progress on www.copsforkidswithcancer.org and lets send this to all our E-mail friends and send it around the country.
We would like to announce that it is once again time for our Irish-American tournament.
This is our sixth year of play, but will be the First Annual John Dow Memorial Cup tournament. Pat Hanlon and his Garda compatriots will be here to challenge their American counterparts in September. And we owe it to John Dow to bring that cup home.
Above is a pamphlet with details of the banquet, sponsorship packages and tournament , which will be held on Thursday, September 13 th at Spring Valley Country Club in Sharon. The application must be returned by August 1, 2007.
I hope you will join us for the challenge, keeping in mind that the proceeds all go directly to benefit children stricken with cancer. We’re proud to carry on the wonderful work that was the brainchild of Captain John V. Dow.
Enjoy a night of food, entertainment and good friends, white you support a child with cancer. Join us at Florian Hall, 55 Hallet Street, Dorchester, MA Thursday, May 10, 2007, for the, "Cops For Kids With Cancer," First Annual Benefit, featuring the, "Legendary Voices." Cocktails from 6-7 P.M. with dinner and entertainment to follow. Tickets are $35.00 per person. Reserve your table now.
Saturday, August 5, 2006
At the same time much of the city and most of the media were buzzing over three bad cops last week, three long-retired good ones were on a top-priority mission.
“Back when we were on the job,” John McManus, 75, recalled, “there were two calls that required an immediate response. One was for a cop in trouble; the other was for a child in trouble. Whenever we heard of a kid needing help, we dropped everything and went.”
McManus retired from the Boston force in 1981 after being shot four times while thwarting a Mattapan holdup.
But when his former captain, John Dow, sought recruits for a special assignment a few years ago, he stepped forward along with Bob Faherty, who’d retired in 2000 as this city’s superintendent-in-chief.
Dow, a Boston cop for 32 years, had founded an organization called Cops For Kids With Cancer, inspired by a visit he made to Ireland where a cops’ golf tournament netted funds for a cancer ward in Cork.
It was the beginning of a relationship in which cops from Cork and Boston now swap annual visits, teeing off to help young cancer victims.
“If I live long enough,” Dow, who’ll turn 80 in November, vowed, “my goal is to sign up cops from other cities to compete in cancer-fighting tournaments, sort of like a Ryder Cup.”
But it was a separate project that brought the old colleagues together on this steamy evening.
“We had 17 kids, all cancer patients, waiting at Mass. General when three police minivans pulled up,” Faherty, 71, said. “And we brought along six motorcycles to escort them.”
“Tommy Lee, from special ops, led the procession in what we would have called a crash car if we’d been guarding a president,” Dow added with delight. “When we took off, we looked like Patton’s Army!”
The entourage brought the kids to the marina in Southie, where The Guardian, a 51-foot police vessel, was docked.
“But before the kids and their families boarded,” McManus said, “John Dow addressed them all, identifying himself as a cancer survivor.”
Dow was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer a dozen years ago.“I called Don Carter, our retired graphic artist, and told him what I needed,” Dow recalled. “He worked on all our homicides, but this really interested him because he lost a daughter to leukemia. I told him I wanted a sketch portraying cancer as a dragon, and he did a great one. It shows a dragon, obviously dead, with a little kid standing on top of it, holding a sword, but you can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl because the kid has no hair.
“I had copies made, which we gave to each kid, along with crayons and police shoulder badges, telling them we’d hang their colored dragon drawings down at headquarters. I just wanted to illustrate how we were all going to beat this dragon.”
As Dow exhorted his young listeners, his colleagues were deeply moved.“I knew what their families were going through,” said Faherty, who has lost a son and a daughter. “So many lives are involved: parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, neighbors, friends. It’s amazing how much pain can be centered around one child.”
“It brought tears to my eyes,” McManus admitted. “I told him later, ‘John, that was the greatest talk I ever heard.’ ”
But for Dowd it was just a prelude.
“Then we loaded them onto The Guardian and headed for the Constitution,” he went on, “calling ahead, telling the crew who we were bringing with us. When we arrived they fired its cannon. If you could have seen those faces! I’ll tell you something about these kids; the more love you give ’em, the more love you get. Believe me, we got as much out of the trip as they did.”
It’s the kind of story that doesn’t seem to make the news these days, with so much attention focused on the bad apples.
So it’s shared in the belief that good cops ought to get a little attention, too.“Our oath was to protect and serve,” Faherty said. “If we can’t help kids with cancer, what the hell good are we?”
Cops for Kids with Cancer helps Maya
To our dear family and friends it is with deep deep sorrow that we let you know Maddie passed away in the hospital today. She passed peacefully in the arms of her mother surrounded by family and some of the wonderful doctors, nurses and friends who have been by our side throughout these past two years. There are no definitive plans as yet but most likely Maddie will be waked on Sunday at Ross Funeral home in Wrentham. The funeral will be Monday at Trinity church in Wrentham. While we will miss Maddie deeply we are grateful her struggle has ended and she is at peace with God and her friends in heaven. We love you all and thank you for being by her and our side throughout these past 2+ years. 
