Pictured left to right: MacKenzie, Teri, Mallory, Chuck and Madison Maier.

Teri and Chuck Maier's relocation from Louisiana to the Santa Clarita Valley in 2004 proved to be far more challenging than they ever could have imagined.

One month after moving to Valencia, MacKenzie, the middle of their three daughters, was stricken with severe left hip and leg pain and had difficulty walking.

A local pediatrician discounted MacKenzie's symptoms as being of viral origin, but Chuck and Teri strongly suspected that their little girl's problem was far more serious.

A trip to Children's Hospital Los Angeles confirmed the couple's worst fears.

The devastating diagnosis: MacKenzie had neuroblastoma, a cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that strikes one in 100,000 children. Arising in immature nerve cells and affecting mostly infants and children, neuroblastoma is often present at birth and appears as a solid, malignant tumor in the abdomen or around the spinal chord.

This form of cancer accounts for 7 to 10 percent of childhood cancers and carries a 50 percent survival rate for patients with stage-four disease. MacKenzie, whose primary site was her left adrenal gland, was at stage four with metastases in 18 different areas of her body.

Shortly after the shock set in, the Maiers went into action to save their daughter's life.

Putting Up a Fight

A pixie with piercing gray-blue eyes and a splash of freckles across her nose, little MacKenzie accepted the grueling chemotherapy, radiation and other necessary treatments with courage and faith.

Following a successful bone marrow transplant last June, then stem cell transfusions and further radiation, MacKenzie has regained her health. No longer in need of platelet or red blood cell transfusions, she's gaining weight back, her hair has grown in, and she's able to do many fun "normal" activities again.

"Today MacKenzie is doing great!" Chuck announces joyfully. "She now goes to the clinic every two weeks to have blood tests to make sure her counts are in normal range. We still have body scans and check the bone marrow to make sure no cancer has returned. She is cancer-free today and hopefully, forever."

Help From The Michael Hoefflin Foundation

During MacKenzie's first round of chemotherapy, a friend from church told Chuck and Teri about the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for children's cancer.

A public non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation, the organization provides financial and emotional support to children and their families in the Santa Clarita and surrounding valleys. It also strives to educate the public and provide grant funding for innovative research to accelerate progress in the fight against pediatric cancer

A phone call to the foundation quickly resulted in a hospital visit from its Founding Chairman, Chris Hoefflin, who lost his 10-year-old son Michael to brain cancer in 1996.

Assistance from the group's outreach program soon followed. Overseeing those helpful services is its Family Services Coordinator Lisa DeLong, a registered nurse who too knows the heartache of pediatric cancer - she lost her son Justin after a 10-year battle with leukemia.

"The Foundation immediately started trying to help us by sending us grocery and gas cards each month," Chuck said. "This was a tremendous help as we were making many, many trips back and forth to the hospital at 70-miles each."

The Foundation's comforting outreach to the Maiers also included: Calls to check on the family; visits to Mackenzie at CHLA; bowling; Christmas and Halloween parties; even a visit from a Disney princess at their home.

Chuck states, "We are very grateful that they came into our lives. It is just one more blessing that has appeared during a time when you thought blessings would be few and far between."

How You can Help

Support the Michael Hoefflin Foundation by attending a fundraising event. This June, the organization will host both a golf tournament and a poker night. For more information on both of these events, turn to Inside SCV Magazine's calendar on page 12.

For more information about The Michael Hoefflin Foundation call 250-4100 or go online to www.mhf.org.