'Loaves of Love:' Fundraiser to benefit local boy with cancer

WASILLA — A loaf of bread can go a long way for a person in need.

This year, the annual fundraiser “Loaves of Love” will benefit 7-year-old Joel Shelton, a local boy who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Feb. 15, 2013.

Rita Kenley Christiansen, one of the founders of the fundraiser, said they started baking and selling breads to raise money for her cousin Hannah, who had cancer, in 2012.

“It started with a specific person with a specific need,” Christiansen said, but Loaves of Love has since grown into “an annual thing” for the community.

There are only two stipulations, she said: the recipient of the proceeds must live in the Valley and have a need.

“Every year around August we just kinda keep our eyes out,” she said.

Through mutual friends on Facebook, they found Joel.

In January 2013, when Joel and his twin brother Nathan were in kindergarten at Fronteras Spanish Immersion School, they went home sick with the flu, said their dad, Willy.

“They had the symptoms on the same day, everything was lock-in-step the same,” he said.

Or so it appeared. The Sheltons’ family practitioner and Willy’s father-in-law, Dr. Rick Nimmo, prescribed Tamiflu for both boys. Nathan got better right away, Willy said, but Joel’s illness lingered for weeks.

“About three weeks post-flu, we noticed that he was limping a lot,” Willy said.

He was also struggling to climb the few stairs up to his room, using the handrail to support most of his weight.

The Sheltons knew “something wasn’t right.”

Dr. Nimmo said a secondary virus that affects the sick child’s bones sometimes follows influenza — not uncommon, but the doctor wanted to run some more tests, just to be sure.

Joel was X-rayed on Feb. 13, 2013, and the results “came back great,” Willy said. Joel had his blood drawn on Valentine’s Day, and the next evening, Dr. Nimmo received a phone call from the lab with the results.

“It’s not Rick’s job to diagnose leukemia, because he’s not an oncologist, but he knew from the blood work what the problem was,” Willy said.

Joel’s grandpa chose to give his family one more evening.

“He knew that in the morning we (would) no longer be a family not affected by cancer,” Willy said.

So on Feb. 15, 2013, Willy picked Joel and Nathan up from school, then came home to grab 3-year-old Eric and the boys’ mom, Adrienne, before driving to Anchorage to see their oncologist.

Adrienne had their bags packed.

“Rick had told her, ‘you guys aren’t coming home, so have an overnight bag for Willy,’” Willy said.

In the Children’s Hospital at Providence, they met Dr. Shannon Norman, Joel’s current pediatric oncologist. Willy described the doctor as “quite possibly the sweetest lady” they’d ever met, but the reality of their situation was still hard to pin down.

“Your world is upside down at that point,” he said.

For four days Willy and Joel stayed in the hospital — the boy with an IV in his arm — waiting to find out what kind of leukemia Joel had.

“For the first four days, you pretty much just sit in the hospital, you don’t know what’s going on,” Willy said. “There’s a lot of panic.”

But when the official diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL, came on Feb. 19, 2013, — the twins’ 6th birthday — that panic lessened.

“She said that it was, um, a really good kind of cancer to have,” Willy said. “You’re really hoping for ALL because it has a really high survival rate, 93 percent.”

According to Willy, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital’s first patient in 1964 was a 6-year-old boy with ALL. Back then, the survival rate was 4 percent, and substantial research and refinement of treatment plans has since occurred.

While the Sheltons could move down to Seattle to have a Joel’s specific case studied, since ALL treatment is the same in Anchorage, they weren’t about to uproot the family and undergo further emotional upheaval.

There was Willy’s job to consider, too. After eight years as a music teacher at Goose Bay Elementary School, he switched from a career “teaching 6-year-olds to sing and dance” to one “teaching 56-year-olds how to retire” at Edward Jones. Since his pay as a financial adviser is based on commission, and he had only obtained the job a little over a year prior, he “couldn’t just pick that up and start that again somewhere else.”

Fortunately, they didn’t have to make that move. Dr. Norman could tell the Sheltons exactly what treatment Joel would be undergoing when, and even then was able to tell them that, if everything went according to plan, Joel would be off treatment and cancer-free in 2016.

The way things have gone so far, that goal certainly seems possible, if not probable. After just under three weeks of initial treatment that February and March 2013, Joel was able to go home.

“Most people have to stay in the hospital for a full 29-day treatment,” Willy said. “We were very blessed that Joel responded quickly.”

By March 2013, Joel was declared technically in remission, but with ALL, doctors have found that the cancer tends to come back, unless treatment continues.

And that treatment is pretty rough. Willy said Joel had seven different regimes of chemotherapy on a scheduled basis for those first eight months, with hospital stays of varying lengths. There were pills, injections, steroids and more that, while designed to ultimately cure Joel, made him feel sad, ill and tired. They gave him a “chemo fog” that made it difficult for him to focus on his homework once he returned to school the second week of first grade.

“He was very aware of how different he was,” Adrienne said.

Not only that, but after the first round of chemo, Joel’s immune system was basically shot, and he almost passed away from an infection. He had a 104.5 fever — even with Tylenol — and was totally incoherent for three days during Easter week last year. His heart rate was at 181 bpm with the fever, and then he slept for almost 24 hours a day for the next four days.

“Easter week for me was harder than diagnosis,” Willy said.

But now, Joel is in the “maintenance” phase, which both his parents said is easier on everyone. He still has to take one pill every day, one pill once a week, one pill every weekend, receive a port injection once a month, take steroids for five days following, and every third month he receives a port injection and a lumbar injection (into his spinal cord) — he’s named each treatment after the Avengers, and when Thor is cleaning house, he takes a big hit, but Captain America isn’t as bad.

“Having been through hair loss and vomiting and mouth sores, weight loss and weight gain and all the rest, it was like ‘OK, we can handle this,’” Adrienne said.

Adrienne said that, last fall, Joel had the worst mouth sores any of his doctors had ever seen. His whole digestive tract had ulcers, and he was throwing up blood, but as he waited to be admitted to the hospital during that time, he wasn’t thinking of himself.

“(He) said, ‘you know when I’m older, I’m gonna come back and help kids like this be brave,’” Adrienne said, recalling Joel’s words when he heard a little girl screaming in the next room.

Fast forward to February 2014. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted Joel’s wish to spend his birthday at Hogwarts and Universal Studios in Disney World. As the family of five prepared for the big trip, Willy encouraged the twins to remember their last birthday, spent in the hospital, thinking they would see their 7th birthday as that much better.

But Joel saw it a different way.

“Joel goes, ‘that means this year’s birthday is going to be even better than last year’s!’” Willy said.

Slightly confused, Willy reminded his son that last year, they got a cancer diagnosis for his birthday.

“He was like, ‘yeah but the nurses wore, they made their own birthday hats and they made us a Star Wars birthday cake, and we got to play with light sabers!’”

He didn’t seem to feel the same way about Easter, however.

“This year for Easter, let’s make cinnamon rolls and skip the hospital,” Adrienne remembered her son saying.

For Christmas, maybe they’ll be feasting on some of the same from Loaves of Love, or at least the proceeds.

Beginning this Nov. 1, Christiansen will take orders for regular white bread, spinach feta bread, tomato basil, sunflower honey wheat, jalapeno cheddar, cinnamon raisin and chocolate cherry breads, plus a limited number of “grandma’s famous sticky buns,” she said. Humdinger’s Pizza owner Gordon Fletcher said he also will donate 100 pre-baked pizza crusts and 20 loaves each of rye and French bread.

“Because of Loaves of Love, we get to have a fun Christmas,” Willy said.

Orders can be placed or money for ingredients donated by contacting Rita Christiansen at ritachr@gmail.com. To volunteer, send Amy Kenley Harmon a message on Facebook via the Loaves of Love event page.

As strange as it may sound, cancer has done some good for the Sheltons. Between the gifts, the prayers and the encouragement, Willy said, the kids have seen “the beauty of human kindness.”

“Cancer has been the most horribly wonderful thing to happen to our family,” he said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.