Little girl, big fight

MOSES LAKE — The parking lot at Third Avenue and Alder Street took on a life of its own Saturday, as businesses and volunteers turned out in support of a very sick little girl.

Eleanor Marcum, who is almost 4, was diagnosed Feb. 28 with stage 4 rhabdomyosarcoma, said her mother, Nicollette Marcum. Cancer treatment doesn’t come cheap, so Christine Lus, owner of Sage Academy of Massage and Bodyworks, Enchanting Events owner Sandy Harrison and Brandi Haug, who owns Cobie’s Dry Cleaning, all got together and organized a fundraiser to help the family offset costs.

“Chris is kind of like an aunt to me,” Nicollette said.

Nineteen businesses set up in the parking lot, Hanson wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald, and 17 more donated raffle items. There were glitter tattoos, a sidewalk chalk art contest and a photo booth where kids could have their picture taken with princesses decked out in their finery. Firefighters from Grant County Fire District 5 set up a dunk tank and firefighters took turns despite the somewhat chilly wind.

“I went first and I’m probably going to go again,” said Recruit Firefighter Jaxyn White. “I probably deserve it because I’ve thrown about a million balls at these guys.”

The event raised $6,235 for the Marcum family, Hanson wrote.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a soft tissue cancer that attacks muscle and connective tissues, according to the National Institutes of Health. Eleanor’s rhabdomyosarcoma is embryonal, which means the cancer cells developed in the womb.

“And then one day, something just triggers it and they're cancerous tumor cells, and they just grow and spread super fast,” said Eleanor’s dad, Ethan Marcum.

The cancer had probably started to grow about six months before it was diagnosed, the Marcums were told. It appeared in the form of a lump in Eleanor’s nose. Doctors first brushed it off as a sinus infection, Ethan said.

“We went back and forth ... probably like about 10, 11, 12 times, something like that, and finally, we got the doctor to look up her nose,” Ethan said.

The doctor scheduled a CT scan for three weeks away, Ethan said. But the cancer was growing faster than that.

“This mass was growing every day; we can see it progressing further and further down her nose,” he said. “She was waking up and our bed would be covered in blood every night. Her face would just look like she'd been socked in the face.”

Finally, the Marcums took Eleanor to an emergency room in Spokane.

“When we got there, the doctors looked at it and looked at the scans and were very quick to say that they were pretty sure that it was cancer,” Ethan said. “They wanted to start everything right away. She went in for emergency surgery and she started treatment right after, because it was pretty serious.”

Eleanor is now on a seven-week cycle of chemotherapy, Ethan said. At the end of May or in early June, she’ll go to Seattle for six weeks straight of radiation, and then more chemo. Her older brothers Trygve Helms, 8, and Atticus Helms, 12, stay in town with family during the out-of-town trips.

Despite the aggressive treatments, Eleanor was in fine form at the fundraiser, Ethan said, running around and dancing and drawing the names for the raffles. She’s been pretty resilient, he said.

“She has her moments where you can tell she's upset or scared,” he said. “But … as soon as she leaves the hospital she perks back up and even sometimes in the hospital if she's comfortable with the people that are in the room, she'll kind of shine that little light and dance around and be her spicy little self.”

Because her cancer doesn’t have tumor markers, there’s no way to know yet if the treatments are working, Nicollette said. Her first scan since she was diagnosed will be May 6, and that will give the Marcums a better idea of what to expect.

“(We want to) thank our whole community for coming out and showing us support through all of this,” Nicollette said. “It's been amazing.”

Community members can keep up with Eleanor’s battle at fight4ellie.com.

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.