Luke Blanock

Luke was born on April 1, 1997 and was our third of 4 children. He attended Canon McMillan High School, was an excellent student and looked forward to attending the University of Pittsburgh after graduation. He enjoyed playing most sports but excelled in baseball and basketball. He was kind, outgoing friendly and wise beyond his years. He loved his large crazy family with many cousins and had a close circle of great friends. He would help a stranger as quick as he would a loved one. He loved life and looked forward each day with a smile that was always present. On December 4, 2013 our healthy, athletic teenage son woke at 3:00 am and called out to his younger sister and asked her to wake my husband and me. He was experiencing excruciating pain and numbness in his legs. Apparently, he had been feeling some discomfort in his lower back for a couple weeks but shrugged it off to physical activity and exertion. We took him to Canonsburg Hospital ER, where they decided he should go to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh by ambulance. A long sleepless night and an MRI turned our world upside down. On December 6th we were given the dreadful news that our son had a baseball size tumor on his spine and that it was a rare form of cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. It required immediate emergency surgery. There was no amount of medication that would take away his pain since the tumor was pressing on the nerves. All we could do was hold him, love him and pray. The surgery was a welcome relief as it took that pain away, but we knew that this was just the beginning. Before the treatment began, we met with the nurse practitioner to go overall of the medications and possible side effects. After almost 2 hours of listening and asking questions we asked for some time alone. On December 31st, after several weeks of recovery from the surgery Luke began his first chemotherapy treatment. During his treatments he went through 39 rounds of chemo and 88 days of radiation to multiple sites. He also had limb salvage surgery at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston Texas to remove part of his hip and femur to eradicate another tumor.