WWW.THELEAVEN.COM | NEWSPAPER OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF KANSAS CITY IN KANSAS | VOL. 33, NO. 33 MARCH 30, 2012
TOY STORY
Teen helps kids with cancer ‘play away pain’
Nick Pate, 14, holds his 14-month-old brother Matthew — his inspiration for a toy drive at Holy Trinity Parish in Lenexa. The drive gathered hundreds of toys and thousands of dollars for boys and girls fighting cancer at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Nick watched Matthew go through months of treatments for leukemia. Now that Matthew is in remission, Nick wants to honor him by helping other kids who have cancer.
L
ENEXA — It looks like Christmas morning — dozens nancy with baby Matthew. of times over. “They didn’t think he was growing,” she said, and she was evenNick Pate loves coming down the stairs of his famtually restricted to bed rest. ily’s home and seeing a room overflowing with toy When Christy gave birth to Matthew in January 2011 and growth cars, Lego sets, baby dolls — every type of toy imagrestriction proved not to be the case, the family breathed a sigh of inable. relief. The 14-year-old parishioner of Holy Trinity Church But their relief was short-lived. in Lenexa hopes to stack even more toys on top of Matthew soon developed an infection and was adthese. mitted to intensive care. Of course, he and his 16-year-old brother Sam out“Twenty-four hours later, we’d probably seen seven Story by grew these kinds of toys long ago. specialists,” said Christy. “And one of them was oncolJessica Langdon And even though the toys catch the eye of their ogy.” 14-month-old brother Matthew, the gifts aren’t desThey learned that Matthew, who has Down syntined for his little hands, either. drome, had a rare form of leukemia as well — one that Photo by It was Matthew, however, and his fight against leuis unique to people with Down syndrome. It went into kemia that inspired all this. Lori Wood Habiger remission without requiring chemotherapy, and he was It was due to Nick’s work in his little brother’s honable to go home — but with the knowledge that Mator that toys like these will go to scores of other kids thew’s leukemia might come back full-blown someday. fighting cancer. Nick never dreamed he would see such a huge response. But now he’s hoping his toy story will find an ongoing way to brighten even kids’ darkest days.
‘Pretty hard on us’
A shocking diagnosis Cancer was the last thing on the Pates’ minds a year-and-a half ago. With two boys heading to high school and a baby on the way, Dr. Brian and Christy Pate moved their growing family from Prairie Village closer to St. James Academy in Lenexa. The move went well, but concerns soon arose over Christy’s preg-
Once home from the hospital, the Pates settled into life with a newborn. Sam was a student at St. James, but Nick, then a seventh-grader, was still being home-schooled. So he was available to help with meals, diapers — anything Christy or Matthew needed. But when Matthew was six months old, the family was hit with more bad news: Matthew’s leukemia had returned. See “TEEN” on page 15