Brookview Kindergartner Beats the Odds, Gives Back to St. Jude

Watching 6-year-old Elise Lambert of West Des Moines play with her twin brother, Evan, smiling and giggling like every kindergartner does, you'd have no idea that about a year ago, her future seemed a lot less bright.

In March 2010, Elise complained of a tummy ache. Her mom, Wendy, kept her home from preschool thinking the stomach bug her husband, Brian had, had also reached her oldest daughter. 

"I remember I came home and she was in bed with Brian," said Wendy Lambert. "As she started crawling out of bed and walking toward me, she just fell to her left side. I picked her up and she was just listing out of my arms, also to her left side. I knew then that something was really wrong."

A trip to the emergency room resulted in a CT scan that showed a lesion on her brain. Elise, just months shy of her fifth birthday, had a brain tumor.

Officially diagnosed with a medullary brainstem glioma (or a brainstem tumor), doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., gave Elise 16 to 18 months to live. They stressed to her parents that only a fraction of children with her diagnosis could live beyond that.

"Honestly, I felt like we were just trying to get more time because nobody gave us any hope," said Wendy. That was until they found St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

St. Jude is an internationally-recognized research hospital devoted solely to the treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Based in Memphis, Tenn., the St. Jude campus is a place akin to Disneyworld for sick children. Every doctor, nurse and patient specialist is focused on the child's needs and making sure they feel comfortable and well-cared for no matter their diagnosis and all at no cost to the family or patient. 

"Until we got to St. Jude, we didn’t have hope," said Wendy. "They gave us that. Once we got there and they gave us Elise's biopsy results and said it (the cancer) wasn’t moving as fast, that's when we started to think differently about her prognosis."

After six weeks of radiation, Elise's tumor had shrunk by 25 percent and today, she's symptom-free.

Though still living with the tumor, Elise is every ounce a normal kid. She loves school — she attends kindergarten at Brookview Elementary School in the . She dances, likes art and is a bit of a girlie girl. That attribute must have been evident to the nurses at St. Jude, who dubbed her "Princess Cupcake," a name that has followed her throughout her treatment there.

"When Elise was having airway problems, they sent us to a separate clinic and the nurse came out to get us and said, 'Well aren’t you just as cute as a princess cupcake,' and it sort of stuck," her mother said.

Elise and her family hope others will appreciate what St. Jude has done for them over the course of the last year or so by donating to the cause. Together, with the support of friends and family, they are walking in the St. Jude Give Thanks 5K Walk being held Saturday at in West Des Moines.

The Lamberts hope to meet their fundraising goal of $10,000 before the weekend to show St. Jude staffers their gratitude for giving Elise and her family hope again.

"It’s a good feeling to give back to St. Jude for everything they’ve done for us," said Wendy. "It’s exciting when donations come in. I don’t think Elise would be here in the capacity she is now without St. Jude. I hope the money we raise will do the same for someone else."

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St. Jude Give Thanks Walk

When: Saturday, Nov. 19 at 8 a.m.

Where: Valley West Mall, 1551 Valley West Drive, West Des Moines

To Donate: Go to Princess Cupcake's page at www.mygivethankswalk.org/elambert.