Miles for Hope Walk

March 29, 2013, (Good Friday) God called Dalton James Andrew home to Heaven.  Dalton was surrounded by his family who stayed by side through his courageous battle with brain cancer.  His funeral was held April 5, 2013 and a few members of the Crusaders team were able to attend.  His service was a true testament to this young man’s influence and encouragement to those around him.  His family and friends shared beautiful stories of Dalton’s courage, his joys, his passion for life, and his knowledge that he was going to Heaven and what that would be like.  Dalton’s story reached people all across the world through his Facebook page and through wonderful people sharing their love for him. 

The following day was the Miles for Hope walk to benefit the research for brain cancer.  Last year, Dalton was the Ambassador for the walk.  This year, the day was bittersweet for everyone who knew Dalton.  We were all proud to be there to represent and honor Dalton, but surely missed his presence.  The Crusaders provided Superman tattoos to Dalton’s family and friends that represented the tattoo that Dalton wanted as a part of his “bucket list of hope”.  It was amazing to see how such a simple thing brought so many people a smile on a day that was so full of emotion.  Prior to the start of the walk, Dalton’s mom released a balloon for him and it looked for one breath stopping moment like it would float right into the trees and pop!  That beautiful symbol of love snaked its way right through those sharp branches and floated straight up to Heaven! The crowd clapped and cheered and breathed a sigh of relief.  The Crusaders Royalty team was at the starting line of the walk and it was kicked off by Lead Queen, Ali.  What an inspiration it was to see all of these people there to support people they knew and did not know all with a common purpose.  The Royalty team cheered all of the walkers/runners on from start to finish! After the walk was over, the Royalty team helped to give out some awards and got to meet the Ambassador for this year.  Then they had the honor of starting off the Survivor Walk and walking with some amazing individuals and their families.  The day was absolutely beautiful and was an amazing success in more ways than one!

Dalton's story

Dalton Andrew is 19 and was first diagnosed with brain cancer at age 17. He had an anaplastic medduloblastoma in his cerebellum. He had surgery and they were able to only partially resect the tumor 2 years ago. What followed was an intense year and a half of heavy chemo and radiation. The tumor did finally dissipate back in November of 2011, but the chemo treatments carried on until March of 2012. Dalton lost over 50 pounds, lost his hair three times, and had a feeding tube surgically implanted into his stomach. When treatment was finally over, Dalton began getting stronger day by day.  Unfortunately, Dalton had an MRI on Jan 23, that showed he had relapsed and there were new tumors in his brain. He had a new 3 cm tumor in the same place as the old one, and 2 smaller tumors in his cerebellum. It also shows some "nodule" cancer in his brain stem. After speaking with both his oncologist and his neurosurgeon, Dalton and his family were given the news that brain cancer would be taking Dalton's life at some point. Knowing this, Dalton was faced with the harrowing decision of whether to have another brain surgery, recover, and prolong his life, even though the surgery was extremely risky.. Or, not to have the surgery all together. Dalton chose to have the surgery within days. While Dalton is still recovering from the surgery, he is working with a physical therapist for his walking, balance and strength to return to as normal as possible. Dalton has also decided to take part in a clinical trial, to attempt to reverse the growth of the other tumors in his brain. During the clinical trial, he will have to see the Dr. for exams, follow ups, etc. weekly. However, during this time, Dalton wants to live his life to the fullest.

He has created his “Bucket List of Hope”:

• ·         One of the things he wants to do is write a book, or work with someone who could help him put his thoughts in writing. (This has been donated by Crusaders Equestrian Team)
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• ·         A Superman tattoo with the brain cancer ribbon. (This has been donated by Jacob Madsen of Ink Stain Tat2’s and Piercing in Hudson, CO.)
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• ·         Dalton would like to have a party. His mom is thinking Memorial Day weekend would be best so that people from out of town can come and make a long weekend of it. She said if they could do it at a hotel that would be great. She would like to have a DJ or band (Steve L. – Maybe the band you had could do this event), a firework show, donated food and a celebrity if we could get one (she used the example of a Broncos player). We are thinking we could also do a themed party as Dalton has always wanted to go see the Ireland Lights but because he has lost so much weight and he is very thin, they are not sure he could spend the time in that cold of weather. So maybe for the party we could bring the Ireland Lights to him! J
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• ·         Dalton loves the show Breaking Bad and would like to see the final season before anything happens. His mom has emailed everyone that she could find on the AMC website to see what she could do so any help with this would be nice.
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• ·         Since he cannot go to Ireland Lights they would like to do a family trip to Cancun. They have already received donated air miles and are going from April 9^th to April 15^th. They would need a hotel room donated for April 9^th – April 13^th in Cancun and from April 13^th – April 15^th in Tulum. They would also like to do different excursions in each city.

If you would be willing and able to donate anything to Dalton and his adventures please contact Stefanie Macaluso at Stefanie@MilesForHope.org or the Crusaders Equestrian Team at info@crusadersequestrian.org. Any donations during this time will go towards giving Dalton the opportunity to travel, have new adventures, take outings with friends and family (sushi is his favorite:) and we will be posting these wonderful memories on Dalton’s Page on Facebook for everyone to track. Your dollars will bring a smile to Dalton, to all of the people that are rooting for him, and to you. Please share this information with everyone you know and lets all help Dalton!! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers for Dalton

Dalton Andrew