Carley Rudledge update...

Today is a milestone for our family, as it marks the 5th year since Carley was diagnosed with stage IV Ewing sarcoma. We faced some of the worst news a family could face. The battle was going to be huge and the burden on others tremendous. With the outpouring of love, food, prayers, ready hands and feet, to help our family, we fought the battle for our daughters life. It truly was the most amazing demonstration of faith and love we have ever experienced.

And it continues to this day. My eyes fill with tears as I write this message of profound thanksgiving to you and to our Lord, God.

Statistically, this day should have never come for our precious Carley, but it did. Not only did it, she is a healthy junior in college and planning her future, something that for so many of our dearest friends will never come. It was our family, friends, doctors and medical staff, that spurred us on to join others in the fight to cure pediatric cancer and even rarer, sarcomas in teens and young adults. Sarcoma and other pediatric cancers receive less then 4% of the total budget of our country's enormous budget for cancer research. There has been little change in the toxic drugs used and the cure rates of these otherwise healthy, vibrant kids and young adults. If they are lucky to survive, the long term effects of these chemo-therapies and radiation cause life long damage to heart, lungs bones, growth, ability to conceive, on and on and on. They even frequently cause secondary cancers.

It has become not only a passion, but a responsibility that I feel deep in my being, to change these dismal statistics. If our country can pour millions of dollars into helping men and women's libido, can we not invest in these innocent lives that are unable to lobby for themselves? Someone needs to work to bring less toxic, curative cancer therapies on behalf of these children and young adults. I feel that our family and many of you, have become that voice for pediatric and young adult cancer patients.

With the support os so many generous people, I am thrilled to report that in the 4 short years of our foundation's inception, two VERY promising therapies are moving forward for Ewing sarcoma. The FANG vaccine will be in centers all over the country,including our own Cook Children's, in a phase II trial, this summer! This is the same vaccine that Carley was the first patient to enroll. Since 2 1/2 years ago, over 20 patients have participate and now 62 more will be able to help further the progress in what we hope will become part of frontline therapy.

In addition, many of you have donated and helped the development of a targeted drug for Ewing's, that will assist in the eradication of the disease. Those efforts will soon be in a clinical trial at the end of the year! We thank Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers for their tireless 30+ years of work on the frontline of immunotherapy and targeted drugs for cancer. And especially for taking on pediatric sarcomas. If these clinical trials prove successful, they plan to move directly into the other deadly sarcomas that plague our youth: osteosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and other soft tissue sarcomas. These therapies, once proven, will be transferable to nearly all cancers. We hope our efforts to be much bigger then Ewing's.

In closing, our family thanks each and every one of you for the part you played in getting us hear today. Carley has scans May 19th, so as always, please pray there is No Evidence of Disease. As we continue to march on our journey toward a cure, today I head down to Texas Children's for a Ewing Symposium that will gather all the great researchers from around the world in hopes of collaborative efforts to speed this process along.

Please continue to pray for all of those who are newly diagnosed, suffering relapse, or worse, from this awful disease. Please keep especially in your prayers are dearest Ewing friends: Andrew, Sam who are facing tough uphill battles right now. There are too many others to name, but we ask you pray for them all; that hope and cure will come soon.

I Corinthians 15:57-58
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Mercy Gonzales-Barnes has been working with the Dios con Nosotros (God With Us) Baptist Convention in Baja California, Mexico since 2002. Her ministry in Baja includes leadership development for new church planting, teaching at the Seminary, and work with short term mission groups from the United States. Her ministry area includes Mexicali, Tecate, Ensenada, San Luis and Tijuana.

Mercy intentionally tries to balance her ministry duties with her family.  She lives in El Centro,CA, 12 miles north of the border with her husband Rick, and their children, Aida, age 19, Rich, age 17 and Joshua, age 11.