Tuckahoe Elementary art teacher Nicole ‘Nikki’ Reed passed away “quietly and peacefully” surrounded by family and friends last month after an eight-month battle against a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer.
“Friends and Family, this is a post that we knew would come eventually, but we all thought we had more time. Our valiant fighter, Nikki, has taken the path of peace,” Janet Doyle wrote on her friend’s CaringBridge blog last month.
“Nikki passed away quietly and peacefully Sunday, March 10th, surrounded by love,” the post continued. “She did all she could to fight this awful disease and did not suffer in the end. She was the most amazing daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend and teacher. The world will be less bright without her in it.”
Reed, a wife, daughter, sister, and mother of two young children — 6-year-old Sylvia and 1-year-old Eli — was diagnosed last July with glioblastoma after she started experiencing symptoms of dizziness and numbness on the left side of her body.
Despite glioblastoma’s notorious low survival rate, the 43-year-old educator remained determined to try to beat the disease. Weeks after being diagnosed, Reed underwent several months of chemotherapy and brain surgery that led to the removal of 95% of the tumor.
Showing her determination, Reed shared her journey publicly online, gaining a large following and raising nearly $40,000 on her GoFundMe page, which is still accepting donations, to cover medical bills and other expenses.
She also sold over 500 t-shirts bearing the message “I can do hard things,” referencing a poster she created during her first year of teaching art. Reed previously told ARLnow that she put the poster up in her classroom during the pandemic as a personal reminder of her resilience.
From her diagnosis until her passing, Reed lived by her motto, family and friends say.
“She was always very headstrong and determined, a fighter all the way to the end,” Reed’s friend of 20 years, Kat Dame, told ARLnow. “Anything that she set her mind to, she did it, and nobody got in her way. She fought for herself, her kids, her family and her friends. She was always a fighter, always very strong, and just confident and determined.”
Despite the challenges, including grueling radiation treatment, Reed’s parents recalled moments of joy, like when Reed rang a bell marking the end of her radiation treatment and when the Tuckahoe PTA provided a Thanksgiving dinner for the family.
“An entire dinner, including a smoked turkey,” Martin Jourden, her father, said. “It was just a lovely dinner… Our son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter, all of us came together as a family.”
Reed’s health began to decline in the late fall following a series of medical episodes, during which she experienced loss of sensation in the left side of her body and, temporarily, a disruption of her short-term memory.
In the face of these challenges, Reed’s parents recall how their daughter strove to maintain a sense of normalcy by celebrating her forty-third birthday, feeding her newborn son and reading to her children every night before bed.
“She put her family first, and we’re just very proud of her,” said Renee Jourden, Reed’s mother.
(Updated 12:07 p.m.) Michele Fleming says losing a child to cancer is the “hardest possible thing you can imagine.”
Though Fleming is still reeling from the loss of her 18-year-old son Nathan, who lost his battle with cancer in 2019, she has used that grief to raise more than $300,000 toward childhood cancer research.
“It’s honestly still very hard to talk about,” Fleming told ARLnow. “But doing this — trying to help other kids in Nathan’s honor — is very healing.”
Following Nathan’s passing, Fleming founded Nathan’s Cancer Slayers in 2020 in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, an organization created in memory of 8-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who died of cancer in August 2004.
Since establishing Nathan’s Cancer Slayers, Fleming and her nationwide team of hundreds of volunteers have collectively raised $310,759 by hosting lemonade stands and participating in the annual “Million Mile” event, where participants of all ages log miles walked, bicycled or run throughout September to raise funds for children with cancer.
This weekend, she will be hosting another lemonade stand at Beyer Volvo in Falls Church and other local vendors have pledged to donate portions of their sales this month.
Fleming aims to raise $100,000 by the end of this year. The money would fund ongoing research by Drs. Jeff Toretsky and Aykut Üren at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Toretsky was also Nathan’s oncologist.
For years, Toretsky and his colleague Üren have worked to find better drug treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer that develops in voluntary muscles that control movements, such as those in arms and legs. Nathan had been diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, which commonly affects large muscles in the torso, arms and legs.
While Toretsky said he and Üren have made progress, one of the main challenges in pediatric cancer research is finding funding to develop a drug treatment for a specific type of cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 400 to 500 new cases of rhabdomyosarcoma are diagnosed each year in the United States. The majority of these cases occur in children and teens, with over half affecting children younger than 10 years old. Rhabdomyosarcoma constitutes about 3% of all childhood cancers.
Because these numbers are so low, Toretsky said it is difficult to get grants from drug makers to fund the research, noting Fleming’s fundraising is a primary reason why he and Üren have been able to continue their research.
It started out as an ordinary day, like any other.
Nikki Reed, her husband Mike, and their two young children, 5-year-old Sylvia and 6-month-old Eli, were spending their Fourth of July at the pool when Reed began to feel dizzy.
Thinking she was just dehydrated, Reed went home, took a cold shower and drank plenty of water. But the dizziness persisted.
That night, she struggled to remove her contacts and earrings with her left hand. The following morning, she had difficulty holding Eli and her left arm felt numb.
After seeing her primary care physician and physical therapist, she was told it may be a pinched nerve due to carrying her baby. On their advice, Reed went to the emergency room for more tests.
After a CT scan, Reed received her results via email as she sat alone on a hospital gurney in the hallway. She had a rare and aggressive brain tumor, later diagnosed as glioblastoma.
In a matter of days, Reed’s life would take an abrupt turn.
“I went to the doctor on July 5. I went to the hospital on July 6. I had a brain biopsy on the 8th and the surgery [removed the tumor] was a couple of days after that,” Reed, an art teacher entering her seventh year at Tuckahoe Elementary School, told ARLnow.
A long road ahead
While the neurosurgeon successfully removed about 95% of Reed’s rapidly growing tumor, she still requires radiation and chemotherapy to eradicate the remaining cancerous cells.
Reed has been undergoing treatment since July that will continue through the end of the September.
Although glioblastoma is not curable, Reed said it is treatable.
The National Brain Tumor Society says glioblastoma “is one of the most complex, deadly, and treatment-resistant cancers.”
The five-year survival rate stands at about 7% but, on average, patients diagnosed with glioblastoma are expected to survive about eight months.
These statistics are sobering. Still, Reed remains hopeful, declaring on her online blog she plans to “fight like hell” to be here for her family.
“I told my oncologist, ‘I hear you saying that it’s treatable but not curable. Tell me about someone you’ve treated,’ and he said, ‘I’ve treated people that are here 10 to 15 years later.’ I said, ‘Okay, keep me alive because 10 to 15 years is a lot of time for medical advancement. Let’s do what we can to keep me here,'” she told ARLnow.
‘I can do hard things’
In the months following her diagnosis, Reed said her her parents relocated from Richmond to Fairfax to be closer. Many of her friends and colleagues have also helped raise funds to assist with the mounting medical bills and other expenses.
“We have a lot of medical expenses… we have childcare costs, food, medical. Yeah, all those things — because insurance doesn’t cover literally anything,” she said. “I’m a teacher. Mike works for the government. Like, we’re not bringing in that much cash on our own. All of this is just unexpected.”
To date, Reed’s community has rallied to raise approximately $32,000 through a GoFundMe campaign and the sale of t-shirts bearing the message “I can do hard things” on the front.
South Arlington resident Laura Resetar is going the distance for people battling cancer.
She is running 100 miles in 10 consecutive days while raising money for the American Cancer Society.
“I just wanted to do something to give back, and feel even the slightest ounce of discomfort that everybody battling cancer is feeling every single day,” Resetar told ARLnow.
The Fairfax County native began her daily 10-mile runs around Arlington and D.C. on Saturday. For Resetar, the cause is deeply personal. Her father has been battling bladder cancer for the past five years and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
“Through their journey, I’ve seen how challenging it is for them and everybody else in the cancer facility where they’re being treated, and I just wanted to do something to honor them and everybody else that’s fighting this disease,” Resetar said.
Donations from friends, family and strangers have already surpassed her $1,000 goal. She had raised around $1,400 so far, as of publication.
In challenging herself to running 100 miles, Resetar said she aims to go a step beyond fundraising.
“It’s easy to just hit reshare on Instagram, but it’s a completely different thing to actually put your words into actions,” Resetar said.
The Virginia Military Institute graduate regularly takes advantage of Arlington’s trails as a way to stay active and destress as her parents undergo treatment.
On top of raising awareness for cancer research, Resetar says that she hopes her challenge encourages people to take a closer look at their own health and take more preventative measures against cancer and other diseases.
“[Running] is so calm and peaceful and such a great stress reliever,” Resetar said. “And I think when you’re so close to home with battling cancer and everything, it kind of puts your own health into perspective.”
Resetar plans to complete her last 10-mile run next Tuesday, with hopes of further exceeding her fundraising goal for the American Cancer Society along the way.
When Donaldson Run resident Liz Lord learned that she had breast cancer in late 2016 and needed to receive chemotherapy, she had lots to worry about.
One thing that might not be a matter of life and death, but is a common concern: her hair.
“At the time, because I had a seven and a nine-year-old, I was really concerned about how [losing my hair] would affect their state of minds, knowing that I was now seriously ill,” Lord told ARLnow.
She reached out to one of her son’s teachers, who had gone through a similar experience and had managed to retain a lot of their hair. That teacher told her about cold caps.
Cold caps are freezing-cold, helmet-like gel caps worn on the head. They narrow blood vessels in the scalp, which helps reduce the amount of chemotherapy medicine that can reach the hair follicles.
While it’s proven to work and is FDA-approved, there are logistical challenges associated with the treatment. This includes needing help to put it on the patient’s head and the relatively high cost. If worn for every round of chemo, prices can soar to thousands of dollars.
While Lord was able to afford the treatment and her husband (communications professional and ARLnow cartoonist Mike Mount) was able to assist, not everyone has those privileges. Plus, cold caps are often not covered by health insurance.
That’s why, in 2018, Lord help start Cold Capital Fund, a local non-profit that helps patients secure and afford cold caps.
Losing one’s hair from chemo can be a traumatic experience, not just physically but mentally as well.
“The primary driver for most patients… is privacy, normalcy, and dignity,” said Lord.”There’s some research… that when you look like yourself and feel like yourself, you have better outcomes relative to treatment.”
The way Cold Capital Fund works is that patients apply for either $500 or $1,000 of assistance. Lord encourages everyone in need to apply. Cancer and treatments are very expensive, she said, plus adding in a number of ancillary costs can make patients think they can’t afford cold cap treatment.
While $500 or $1,000 doesn’t always cover the entire cost of the treatment, it can put a significant dent in it. Plus, Cold Capital Fund has a relationship with two cold cap manufacturers and notifies the companies when a patient is approved for assistance. In turn, the companies apply a 25% discount.
When all is said and done, many patients end up getting about half of their cold cap treatments paid for.
Over the last four years, Cold Capital Fund has provided approximately $105,000 of financial assistance to about 125 patients across the region. Mostly, they are breast cancer patients like Lord was.
Recently, the organization has seen a marked rise in applications.
Love Notes in Rosslyn — “In honor of Valentine’s Day, we created Rosslyn Love, a community-wide free activity where anyone in the DMV could submit a message to be displayed across four temporary murals outside of 1550 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. Whether it was for a partner, a friend, coworker, family member, healthcare professional or even just a favorite spot around the neighborhood, we received over 400 messages of love and gratitude.” [Rosslyn BID]
Dems Keep Focus on Equity — “The Arlington County Democratic Committee in early March is expected to make its ad-hoc Inclusion and Equity Committee a permanent standing committee. The goal, deputy party chair Maggie Davis said, was to ‘do better including more people that look like the population of Arlington’ in Democratic Party activities.” [InsideNova]
Local GOP Surveying Members — “The Arlington County Republican Committee is in the midst of surveying its membership in hopes of making the party and its meetings more relevant to the rank-and-file and broader community. ‘Dozens of Arlington Republicans have already taken the time to complete this survey, and their responses are thoughtful and thorough,’ said Matthew Hurtt, the Arlington GOP’s communications director.” [InsideNova]
Police Investigate Sexual Battery in Arlington Mill — “The victim was walking in the area when she noticed the male suspect walking behind her. The suspect approached the victim, grabbed her waist and thrusted himself against her multiple times while making sexual comments. The victim continued walking and, as she approached her residence, the suspect re-approached her and brushed his hands against her breast. The victim was able to enter her residential building and close the door, preventing the suspect from following her inside.” [ACPD]
Air Force Vet Still Standing Up to Cancer — “‘Pat’ Malone, a seven-year cancer survivor, and 20-year Air Force veteran will ‘stand up to cancer’ for 24-hours straight, during his Seventh Annual Stand Up To Cancer® (SU2C) 24-Hour Fundraiser, beginning at 4:26 p.m. on Wednesday, February 10, and ending at 4:26 p.m. on Thursday, February 11, 2021, at Fire Works American Pizzeria & Bar, 2350 Clarendon Blvd.” [The Zebra]
A grieving mother in Arlington turned her pain into a passion of raising awareness for pediatric cancer while contributing to a fundraiser for research.
Michele Fleming lost her son, Nathan, to cancer a week after his 18th birthday last September.
“Nathan was unbelievably strong, never wanting to reveal his pain or be defined by his cancer. He remained positive and a joy to be around throughout his struggle,” Fleming said about her son’s battle with cancer. “Nathan’s resilience, compassion and fierce determination to fight and overcome, motivates me everyday to do what I can to help other kids and their families win their battle with Nathan by my side.”
Since losing Nathan, Fleming has partnered with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and 1,641 other fundraising teams to host the foundation’s “Million Mile” event that raises awareness and provides funds to researchers for pediatric cancer cures.
The collective goal for this month-long event is to log one-million miles from virtual races and raise $1 million for the organization’s childhood cancer research fund.al
“Turn awareness into action, by joining The Million Mile, the largest childhood cancer awareness challenge that funds researchers so they can find better treatments and more cures for kids battling cancer,” the website said.
“Nathan’s Cancer Slayers” is ranked #3 out of 1,641 teams, with a goal of contributing $50,000 to the foundation’s research fund, according to Fleming.
“We’ve recruited 169 members from Arlington to Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Illinois, California, North Dakota, and London to participate in ALSF’s Million Mile event,” said Fleming.
Although they have not quite hit their goal yet, Fleming said she is thrilled with the amount of support the team is receiving.
“So far, we’ve raised an amazing $44,789, which will fund 896 hours of critical research! We’re blown away by all the support and I know that Nathan is cheering us on” said Fleming.
Numerous local businesses have contributed to the fundraiser, despite the pandemic hurting the finances of many.
“Arlington’s Arrowine, Harris Teeter, Pastries by Randolph, Lyon Hall, Massage Envy, Pupatella, Cook Architecture, Andre Chreky Salon Spa, and Taqueria El Poblano,” have all donated gift certificates or directly to the fundraiser, Fleming said. The Starbucks at the Lee Heights Shopping Center and Capital Laser & Skin Care in Bethesda also donated, and Pie-Tanza is donating 10% of its sales every Tuesday during the month, she added.
“We’re overwhelmed by all the support from the community,” said Fleming.
Additional donations can be made all month long by joining Nathan’s team. The donations are being matched by Volvo from Sept. 24-27, according to Fleming.
Photos courtesy Michele Fleming, Michael Fleming and Lyle Kimms
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).
Elise Yanker Hasenei used to jog to her radiation treatment at the Virginia Hospital Center and back home. It became something of a community event, with friends and supporters taking to the street with her to encourage her. Now, Hasenei is making the trip to the Virginia Hospital Center to encourage others.
With the Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) seeing an increasing uptick in coronavirus patients, Hasenei’s startup GoLisey recently donated over a hundred brightly colored hospital gowns with brightly colored masks to help out.
Hasenei runs GoLisey, a “glam gown” company she started in 2015 after surviving breast cancer. The hospital gowns are brightly colored and aim to boost spirits, but are no less medically functional than the usual drab coverings.
The gowns can be worn in either direction, with access to the front or the back depending on the specific medical needs.
“Elise wanted to do something to help during this trying time in the healthcare industry, so she reached out to VHC to donate all of the gowns she currently had in stock, for men and women alike,” Hansenei’s niece, Megan Wrobel, said in an email. “She dropped four boxes of Glam Gowns to the donation center on Tuesday afternoon, which serendipitously ended up being located in the Oncology wing; an area she was, of course, familiar with.”
Hasenei said when she was going through cancer treatment, she always hated the gowns.
“I never felt depressed about cancer until radiation and I just had to put those ugly things on,” Hasenei said. “I can sow a little bit, so I started playing with the pattern and people started saying ‘that’s fabulous.’
After making a few, Hasenei started to get serious about the idea of making them on a larger scale. Hasenei put together a design with a pattern maker and started working with a factory in Brooklyn to produce the designs while she handled the business from her Arlington home. Since then, Hasenei has moved production to a facility in Fairfax County.
The gown business is a second job — her main career is coaching and consulting businesses — and Hasenei said the gown line was never intended to make her rich.
“Didn’t start the business to be a big moneymaker,” Hasenei said.”It’s really been about — one gown at a time — making a difference.”
When COVID-19 hit, Hasenei said her brother-in-law sent her a message about people in New York seeking gowns and masks. When it became apparent that hospitals nationwide were starting to run low on supplies, Hasenei decided to donate to the hospital where she’d received treatments.
Other local organizations, like Marymount Nursing School, have also donated items like gowns and masks to VHC.
“I reached out to contacts who put me in touch with the hospital,” Hasenei said. “I gave them everything I had. I was able to deliver those, and we’re waiting to see how they’re distributed.”
Now, Hasenei said the factory is “full tilt” making masks, which will be included in the next round of donations to VHC.
Photo courtesy GoLisey
A charity fund raising money for local cancer patients’ medical needs is hosting its 20th annual fundraising night in Arlington next month.
The Sharon McGowan Breast Health Fund is throwing their 20th annual benefit in Ballston on Sunday, April 7 from 5-7 p.m., at the Mercedes-Benz dealership on 585 N. Glebe Road. The event is is being hosted together with the Arlington County Medical Society Foundation.
The benefit will serve drinks and hors d’oeuvres and will feature music and door prizes. Attendees are encouraged to wear business casual — and show up wearing the color pink.
General Admission tickets for April’s charity night cost $85, with a $35 discount for people younger than 40. Those interested in attending can RSVP online.
Proceeds will go towards covering the cost of preventative breast cancer screening for uninsured Arlingtonians.
Event co-organizers include the Virginia Hospital Center, the Arlington Department of Human Services and Arlington Free Clinic.
The Sharon McGowan fund was created by the family of Sharon McGown, an Arlington mother of seven who died in 1997 of breast cancer. The fund organizes activities year-round from T-shirt sales to networking happy hours raising money for breast cancer prevention and treatments, including mammograms, sonograms, biopsies, medical devices and medications for people without insurance.
The donations have provided “1,500 mammograms, 200 comprehensive sonograms, and over 140 biopsies” over the last decade, per the fund’s website.
Photo via Flickr user Faye Mozingo
A group of Arlington high school seniors are now working to raise $50,000 to support blood cancer patients, in a bid to honor a friend who died from a rare form of leukemia a few years ago.
In all, nine students at the newly renamed Washington-Liberty High School are participating in the “Students of the Year” fundraising campaign run by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The girls are competing with other students across the region to see who can raise the most money to support the nonprofit’s mission, and the program includes leadership and professional development opportunities as well.
The students named their team after Juliana Clarkson, a 14-year-old student at Swanson Middle School who passed away due to complications from mixed-phenotype acute leukemia. Two of her best friends, Julia Elman and Grace Barnes, say they were inspired to start a “Cancer Education and Action Club” at W-L as freshmen in her memory, and they’re now leading the “Students of the Year” effort as well.
“This spring, Julia and Grace will be graduating… a momentous milestone that would have included Juliana,” the students wrote as part of their fundraising efforts. “Team Juliana fights to give child cancer patients the possibility to grow up and follow their dreams, something Juliana will never get to do.”
Elman and Barnes also helped organize fundraisers through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s “Light the Night Walks,” raising “tens of thousands of dollars for LLS while providing an avenue for friends and family to come together and honor Juliana each year,” they wrote.
Elman added that she’s also working to honor her grandmother, who passed away from chronic lymphocytic leukemia years ago. Elman’s mother, Janet, says her daughter is planning to attend Princeton University this fall — she added that Julia was also recently diagnosed with primary lymphedema, a disease affecting the lymphatic system which is treatable, but has no known cure.
The students have until March 2 to raise money for the cause. The Shirlington restaurant Palette 22 is holding a fundraiser to support the group on Monday (Jan. 28), and full details about how to contribute are available online.
Photo courtesy of Julia Elman and Grace Barnes courtesy of Janet Elman
Police Investigate Stabbing Near Alexandria Border — Updated at 2:45 p.m. — Arlington County Police are investigating a stabbing that happened last night at S. Arlington Ridge Road and S. Glebe Road. The incident, which started when the victim asked for help finding a ride, was initially believed to be a shooting, but was later determined to be “the result of a sharp weapon.” The victim was found with non-life threatening wounds just across the border in Alexandria. [Twitter, ACPD]
Major Redevelopment in Rosslyn — The Dittmar Co. has filed a preliminary site plan to redevelop the Holiday Inn hotel in Rosslyn, building 26- and 38-story towers housing 490 apartments and 327 hotel rooms. The proposal includes a 6,000 square foot event space on the top floor of the taller tower and the demolition of a skybridge crossing Fort Myer Drive. [Washington Business Journal]
Leonsis Says Build the Gondola — In a joint WaPo op-ed, Caps and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly and former GOP Congressman Tom Davis say the proposed Georgetown-Rosslyn gondola would be a “forward-looking and innovative” investment in our transportation infrastructure. [Washington Post]
Local CEO Buys Rosslyn Buildings — “Affiliates belonging to Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. CEO Dave Schaeffer, one of the region’s highest-paid chief executives, have acquired a pair of Rosslyn office buildings (1550 and 1560 Wilson Blvd) recently renovated to include upgraded common-area space and a new boutique boxing-oriented fitness facility.” [Washington Business Journal]
Sheriff’s Office Raises Money for Prostate Cancer — The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office helped to raise money for prostate cancer treatment at Virginia Hospital Center during the month of November via its “Beards with a Badge initiative.” [Virginia Hospital Center, WJLA]
November Sets Weather Record — Last month was the wettest November on record for the Washington area. It was also the second-wettest meteorological fall on record for the area, according to the National Weather Service. [Twitter]
Police Searching for Missing Man Last Seen in Georgetown — Police are still looking for David Stern, a D.C. accountant last seen at Dixie Liquor on M Street in Georgetown. The 29-year-old, who is engaged to be married, hasn’t been seen since buying a bottle of Crown Royal at the store this past Tuesday. [Fox 5]
Photo courtesy @wwwchris
