LYNDONVILLE— Megan Rapp is not yet 2 years old, but she has already undergone operations and chemotherapy in an attempt to battle the rhabdoid tumors she has been fighting since birth. Now the Rochester native, and great niece of Lyndonville resident Tania Mofardin, must receive two stem cell transplants.
“They were just living their life and she started getting ill when she was about five months old,” Mofardin said. “Just flu-like symptoms and my niece was rubbing her belly to soothe her and noticed a lump. They were really concerned because she had been sick for so long, but the doctor kept saying it was just the flu.”
After taking their baby to an emergency room in Michigan, where the family moved, Peggy and Jeff Rapp learned their daughter had a mass the size of a baseball on her kidney. The kidney was removed, but more tumors were found on her brain and lungs. Doctors labeled Megan stage four and gave her less than a 1 percent chance of survival.
“They’ve been searching for an answer,” Mofardin said. “What they’ve initially come to is to do these stem cell transplants to try to get rid of the cancer ... There have been very few children who have survived rhabdoid tumors.”
Mofardin said each transplant costs about $200,000. Trying to come up with a way to help, Mofardin turned to George and Barb Kiefer. George is the Sensei at Lakeside Karate in Lyndonville where Mofardin’s children take class.
Every September, Kiefer holds a free class to introduce the community to his school. This year, however, the class will take on a different meaning as local students and residents kick for a cause.
“Tania was talking to us one day and told us about Megan,” Kiefer said. “This was as we were heading toward September when we do the free class, so this year my wife said, ‘Why don’t we do a fundraiser? Why don’t we make it a fundraiser for Megan?’”
That conversation was when the “Kicks for Megan Kick-a-thon” was born. Kiefer said most of his students will be taking part in the Sept. 25 event, but it is open to anyone who wants to participate. Kickers must get pledges to donate money per kick.
“We will be timing them to see how many kicks they can do in three minutes,” Kiefer said. “So if someone pledges 25 cents a kick and the person does 100 kicks, then that is $25 raised.”
Kiefer said every single cent raised will go directly to Megan.
“I’ve always said at some point when we had enough students, we’d do something to give back to the community,” Kiefer said. “I thought it would be much better to do something for someone else rather than just a free class.”
Following the Kick-a-thon, there will be an open house, free class and refreshments. Local businesses have also donated gift certificates and prizes, which will be given out during the event. Mofardin said she is grateful for the generosity, saying every little bit helps.
“No matter what we get out of this, just the idea that they did this and thought of this is just amazing,” she said.
Contact Holly Weber at (585) 798-1400, Ext. 2225.
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September 12, 2006
Kicks for Megan
Local karate school holds fundraiser to support ailing niece of Lyndonville family
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