Community bands together to help child with cancer

Caitlin Hudgins

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 3:19 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

May 29 - 30, 2004

A raffle will be held Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to close at the Las Vegas 51s games to benefit Kirsten Rand. For more information call 871-7251.

Nine-year-old Kirsten Rand received an honor roll award last week, but she was not at the ceremony to honor her and others. She was not even at school that day. Nor that week.

Kirsten wasn't playing hooky, though. She was receiving chemotherapy treatments at Sunrise Hospital for leukemia lymphoma. She was diagnosed on May 7.

Kirsten came down with flu-like symptoms in late April, her mother, Misty, said. Her pediatrician gave her some medicine for her stomach, but when it didn't work, Kirsten's parents took her to the emergency room.

At the Sunrise emergency room, doctors discovered that Kirsten's calcium levels were high. Four days and several blood tests later, Kirsten was diagnosed with cancer.

Kirsten will undergo at least 32 weeks of treatments to stop the cancer, which has already spread through her bones, friends say.

Friends and family have stepped in to help, setting up a bank account for donations and organizing a series of fund-raisers to provide money for the girl's treatment and the family's expenses.

Mom Misty Rand quit her two extra jobs to care for her daughter. Dad Jason Rand has taken on a second job to earn money to pay the medical bills their insurance company doesn't cover, family friend Elise Wright said.

The Rands recently bought a new house for the family of six and were scheduled to move in this week, Misty Rand said. But with all of Kirsten's medical expenses, she is not sure they will be able to afford to keep the home.

The fund-raisers began quickly. The Las Vegas Lightning 10, the softball team Kirsten's older sister Katirina plays on, has already raised almost $3,000 with a bake sale and a raffle.

The team also donated the money left in the team account, $235, which the girls would have spent on a team party.

"The girls (on the team) stepped up," Misty Rand said. "Kirsten isn't even on their team, but they gave 150 percent."

Another raffle, this one including a car giveaway, will be held during the Las Vegas 51s games this weekend at Cashman Field. Tickets will be sold on the mezzanine for $10 throughout the games. Twenty-five percent of all money raised will be donated to the Rands.

A third raffle will be at noon June 20 at the Nevada Junior Olympic State Championships through the Amateur Softball Association at the Flamingo Softball Facility.

Las Vegas Valley residents have already donated about $3,000 to the Bank of America Kirsten Rand Leukemia Fund.

"Everyone has been so supportive, and I'm so thankful," Misty Rand said.

Kirsten has handled the treatments well, doctors said, and her prognosis is good.

"She's a child, and she's resilient," Rand said.