Maddie Erhardt Completes The Circle Of Healing

By Kaaren Valenta

Madison Erhardt, 7, knows what is like to be a cancer patient, have surgery, undergo chemotherapy, and lose all your hair.

“I lost my hair because I had cancer when I was 3 years old,” she says. “I [also] lost one of my kidneys.”

Four years ago the Erhardt family –– Scott and Lynn and their children Madison and Spencer — was in Florida, enjoying a vacation at grandpa’s house on the beach.

 “Maddie looked so cute in her bathing suit that I just had to give her a hug,” Lynn Erhardt said. “I felt something hard, that I knew just wasn’t right.”

Within an hour Maddie was at a pediatrician’s office for an examination that included an ultrasound. The following day she was at Yale New Haven Hospital, and the third day she underwent surgery to remove a Wilms Tumor.

Also called nephroblastoma, a Wilms tumor is the most common form of kidney cancer in children, developing while the baby is still in the womb and accounting for six to seven percent of childhood cancer cases. Seventy-five percent of the cases occur before the child is 5 years old.

Usually Wilms’ tumors are not diagnosed until they have become quite large, but most are found before they metastasize, or spread to other parts of the body.

“We were lucky,” Mrs Erhardt said. “Maddie’s tumor was stage one. The cure rate is 98 percent.”

“Wilms is the most common abdominal tumor in children –– one out of 200,000 to 250,000 are diagnosed every year –– but it is also one of the most curable cancers,” she explained.

Almost half of Wilms’ tumors are found before they reach stage two, which means they are limited to the kidney and are completely excised. As is true of many cancers, Wilms tumor is a fast-growing cancer. Diagnosis is done through an abdominal exam, a blood test (CBC), urine test, x-ray, ultrasound, intravenous pyelogram, or a CT scan.

Before the tumor is discovered, some children show symptoms including abdominal swelling and pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, loss of appetite, fever, night sweats, abnormal urine color or blood in the urine, and malaise. But some, like Maddie, had seemed fine before the tumor was discovered.

 “She started chemotherapy through a portacatheter in her chest while she was in the hospital after surgery and it continued until just a few days before Christmas 1999,” Mrs Erhardt said. “Then we had to go to the hospital once a week, every Wednesday, for chemo. Gradually the time between treatment increased to monthly, and now Maddie goes every six months for a blood test to be sure that she is still cancer-free.”

Maddie went through the treatment with few complaints.

“She was really like the poster child for Wilms’ tumor,” Mrs Erhardt said. “She went right through everything with no problems. She never even got a cold. She’s very resilient.”

Only toward the end, when doctors doubled the amount of chemo, did she become sick but the antinausea medication really helped her, Mrs Erhardt said.

In December 1999, as her daily treatment stopped, the family made a trip to Disney World.

“Maddie was losing all of her hair, so we cut the rest off. She was totally bald. She looked like a little angel,” her mother said.

 “Everyone who has cancer loses their hair,” Maddie said. “Mine did, but it grew back.”

So when Maddie heard about Locks of Love, she knew exactly what she needed to do. She told her parents that she wanted to donate her hair to other children who have lost theirs.

Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 who have long-term medical hair loss. The hairpieces are provided to help restore the self-esteem of the children, and their confidence, enabling them to more easily face the world and their peers.

Maddie went to the Blaine Thomas Salon on Route 25 in Monroe, where hairstylist Tom Giardini cut off ten inches of her hair. Instead of accepting payment for his services, Mr Giardini asked the Erhardts to make a donation to a charity.

“We will give to the Make-a-Wish Foundation,” Mrs Erhardt said. “Make-a-Wish fulfilled Maddie’s wish for a playhouse.”

Maddie has decided to start growing her hair again so that she can donate it again to Locks of Love.

“I think it is a good idea for everyone to do it,” she said. “It makes me feel happy to do it.”

When Maddie was 5 she had a special request at her birthday party. Instead of presents, everyone who attended was asked to bring a hat. The hats were donated to the children’s department at Yale.

“I had both a wig and a hat, but I didn’t really like to wear the wig, so I usually wore the hat,” Maddie confided.

She and Spencer, who is now 9, also made the news when they donated all of their savings to help rebuild the playground at Treadwell Park after it had been destroyed by arson three years ago.

Mrs Erhardt said that her daughter’s experience with the Wilms tumor has made her wise beyond her years. “There’s something about her,” she said. “She was put on this earth for a reason and put through this experience for a reason.”

Donating to Locks of Love was part of this, she said.

“We are so happy to turn such a scary event into a rewarding opportunity and experience, [a way] to help others less fortunate,” she said. “It doesn’t take a lot of money; it can simply mean cutting your hair. How beautiful.

“We’ve now made the complete circle of healing,” she said.

For more information about Locks of Love, visit the website www.locksoflove.com or write to Locks of Love, 2925 10th Avenue North, Suite 102, Lake Worth, Fl 33461.