This Wednesday we lost six year old Jennifer Lynn Kranz to a cancer called DIPG.
Jennifer is my sister-in-law Stephanie's goddaughter and was the flower girl at their wedding this January. We've known since last fall that Jennifer had this cancer and that there is no cure. So, the decision was made to move the wedding to a date she could still attend. Jennifer is surely in Heaven now and I know it's like the magical beach day pictured above from just five weeks ago. I don't know how to describe how sad I am for my new sister and her best friend's family, but I can say that I'm so thankful they had that amazing day together. It was an absolute blessing in the midst of a 6 month long nightmare.
The Kranz family isn't ending their fight now, they've already donated her tumors to be studied at nearby Stanford Hospital and will continue raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer research. Jennifer's story was shared last night on NBC Bay Area.
That news segment gave the statistic that only 4% of federal funding for cancer research goes to pediatric cancer. Jennifer's mother Libby badly wants any help we can get to change that.
Please share Jennifer's story so that maybe we can spare other families from having to go through this horrible ordeal. You can learn much more about Jennifer and her family's ongoing efforts at Libby's heartbreaking blog Love4JLK.
<3 For Jennifer Lynn Kranz
also posted at The People's View