This is not going to be my usual WWE centered post. May is national brain cancer awareness month. In light of that I would like to talk about pediatric cancer in general. While I am still new to this topic, and not as informed as I like to be about the medical side of it, I would like to share my experiences with it, what I like to call the “human side”. I was first introduced to the pure evil that is childhood cancer in the late 2000’s. I watched it slowly take the life of a super happy, active little boy. It was heart breaking, through the next couple of years I watched several friends of mine lose their battles as well. Flash forward to 2014 when through the power of the WWE universe I was introduced though pictures and videos to a boy named Connor Michalek. I didn’t know it yet, but he would change my life forever! I started following his journey on twitter, and through YouTube videos. What I saw was not a young boy with a horrible disease, but a funny, quick witted, lively child who’s confidence was huge, and his personality even larger, but even with his amazing never give up attitude, this horrible indiscriminate destroyer of lives we call cancer took Connor way too soon. As I was following his journey I became friends with his dad Steve. Since I live on the other side of the country from the Michalek family I hadn’t had the chance to meet Connor in person before he passed. I am going to add here that I am a MASSIVE believer in “There are no coincidences” We attended not only our first every WWE live event, but our first Wrestlemania when it came to Levi stadium in our home state of California. It was also the same year that Connor was being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame as the recipient of the new Warrior Award. We were unable to get tickets to the Hall Of Fame ceremony, so we watched it in our hotel room on the WWE Network We decided to venture downstairs to eat dinner, when we were finished I just wanted to go back to the room, but my husband insisted on going to the “gift shop” boy am I glad he did.. after we left the gift shop, we got into the elevator to go up, but saw a guy walking toward us with a sleeping child on his shoulder. We held the elevator door for him, and I didn’t realize it right away, but it was Connor’s dad Steve and his little brother Jackson. I told him how awesome he did on stage, and how moving his speech was, and how cute Jackson was. He said his thanks, and exited his elevator when it reached his floor, as we did when it finally reached ours. Once we got back to our room, I send Steve a tweet telling him how nice it was meeting him in the elevator that night, he responded “That was you?” and the rest as they say is history. I have been a strong supporter of Connors Cure a fund started by Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque to find a cure for pediatric cancer. Steve and I still talk to this day, Jackson is getting so big, and has an awesome personality. In 2015 WWE decided to back one of their programs called “Tough Enough” When they stated searching for people to be on the show, they asked that anyone who wanted to be on the show send in a video showing why they were “Tough Enough”. They had thousands of submissions, but one in particular stood out. It was 8 year old Elijah Mainville Elijah is Tough Enough
Stephanie, and Triple H were so impressed with Elijah that this happened. Money in the bank briefcase
Like Connor did, Elijah stole my heart! I started following his journey on twitter. His mom is a vloger, and has a channel on YouTube called MomsVlog80 where she gives you a glimpse at a day in their lives. After I started watching the daily vlogs, I felt closer to them, and more determined to do what I could to find a cure for this horrible disease. It’s just not fair, he’s had to deal with this stupid crap every day since he was 3 years old!! 3 freaking years old!!! The following link tells Elijah’s story in his mother’s words, please click and read. Be Brave for Elijah
My family and I have become friends with the Mainville family. We had planned to try and meet up at Wrestlemania 32 this year, but cancer had other plans. It turns out that Elijah couldn’t attend the event. I felt so bad for him as it was something he was really looking forward to. Since we were going to Axxess (an event similar to ComicCon), and Wrestlemania I asked his mom if he would like it if I skyped it for him, so he could see what was there, and hopefully talk to some of the wrestlers!. I wasn’t sure it was gonna work, but I was determined to give it a shot. As luck would have it Stardust was at one of the Picture/Autograph stations. We waited our turn, and with Elijah on facetime When I handed my phone to Stardust, what happened next was pure magic! Elijah’s face lit up, as did Stardust’s. They talked to each other like they were the only two in the room. Stardust faced the phone at the audience and asked them to tell his buddy to get better, and the 200+ people in line did just that in unison. It was an awesome moment!! We continued to talk over the following weeks and decided to get together at Ronnie’s favorite place to eat Applebee’s! It was really cool getting to meet them in person. Melody was looking for a Disney store fix so they followed us to the nearest mall that had a Disney store. My oldest daughter (who is the same age as Elijah) pushed his wheelchair through the mall a little. He found this Marvel Legends “Ant Man” figure, and we told him that we would get it for him for his birthday. Stephanie McMahon was right, he does give awesome hugs. I tell you this story to say that cancer is REAL and it sucks, and its unfair, and it needs more awareness, so please if you want to “Help a family” please do not donate to one of those multi billion dollar charities, donate to a family directly, become a patron, and help Elijah, and his family.
Girlie's Corner 