hats with love...

Meet Preston...

A few weeks ago, Gina, from The Shabby Creek Cottage, 

wrote a post about a remarkable young boy named Preston.
His story touched my heart and I want to share him with you...

I wrote to Preston's mom, Tonya, and asked if she could share his story with us
as well as an update on how he is doing today.
This is from the email that she sent to me.

Preston was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis at 5 months old with involvement in his skin, lymph nodes, bones and central nervous system. He began chemotherapy immediately and remained on it for 5 years. 8 months after he was diagnosed, his daddy (my husband), Dana, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and given 6 months to live. There were very close and called each other their "port buddy", referring to their port a cath's that were used to administer the chemotherapy. After almost 8 years, his daddy passed away (April 2010). 
In August 2011, Preston was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and began treatment once again. After the first week, his hair fell out and he asked me to teach him how to make hats to keep his bald head warm. I took him to the store and let him pick out a pattern and 3 or 4 fleece prints. Once he'd made himself a few hats, he told me that he wanted to make hats for the other kids at the cancer center. That's when Beanies for Baldies was born.
 As of December 2011, there is no sign of Lymphoma in his body. He sees the oncologist every 3 months and will have scans every 6 months for a couple of years at least. 
We have provided 180 hats in 3 months to 2 hospitals and are working on adding 3 more hospitals. It's important to us to not have it just be a box received in the mail at the hospital so we're making sure that we have a volunteer that we can mail the hats to and they can hand carry them to the pediatric clinic. If anyone lives in an area with a children's cancer clinic and is interested in taking that role, we would welcome it.
 While initially Preston made all of the hats himself, with the addition of hospitals we've had to accept offers to help sew. We now have 5 people (including Preston) sewing hats for us. They will always be made by someone whose heart is in the mission and not by a factory....one hat at a time, lovingly made.

So there you have it, Preston makes hats.

This young mans life has been forever changed by cancer.
and what does he do?
He selflessly reaches out to others

 He makes hats for the children at

the pediatric cancer wards near his home,

the same cancer ward that he goes to for his own treatments.

He also sells his fabulous fleece beanies on his etsy shop

called

Beanies for Baldies

for every $5.00 hat that is purchased

 he buys more fleece to make more hats to give away.

See, I told you...

REMARKABLE

I read Gina's post and wiped my eyes, and then reread it

 and then I called Max into the room to pick out hats.

One for him and one for his best buddy Elijah.

Elijah also fights cancer.

He has Leukemia and he is one tough cookie!

He is in remission and feeling great and we are so thankful for that.

When Elijah lost his hair, Max was in search of hats for him so that he didn't get a sunburn <3
They are as close as brothers and thought it was pretty cool to have matching hats!

Thanks Preston!

If you know of anyone who needs a super soft, warm, cute, hat...

go see Preston!

He's the man.

Small in stature but a Giant among men.

love,

Theresa xoxo