Passion for Life 5k – Walled Lake, 3/29/14

We are excited about the upcoming Passion for Life 5k that will take place this coming weekend, Saturday the 29th of March.

One thing that makes this event special is the fact that each year, a local family and University of Michigan Mott Hospital is the benefactor of the proceeds. For 2014, the local family is from Commerce Township, the Balzer Family.

Adams Sports Medicine & Physical Therapy is proud to support the efforts of Passion for Life and the Walled Lake Community. If you are around, consider participating, running, or simply coming out to cheer the runners/walkers for this annual event!

 

Our seventh Inspirational Family is the Balzer family. Sydney Balzer is a nine year old girl from Commerce Twp, MI.

Sydney’s story started in September 2010 and just only a few weeks into the school year. After feeling extremely tired & worn down, the family took Sydney to the doctor’s office. After extensive blood work was done and a couple hours later, the family was sent to Children’s Hospital of Michigan and was told that Sydney had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The family was devastated. Leukemia treatments are hard. Sydney had missed over 100 days of school during first grade. Over the course of the 2 ½ years of treatment she lost her hair twice, was in the hospital many times, spent many a days (and nights) sick from the chemo’s at home and was not able to participate in many of the normal activities that she loved (soccer, gymnastics, swimming). Even harder was not being able to spend time with friends. Sydney completed treatments in February 2013. After a great “cancer free” celebration, life was normal again. She enjoyed gymnastics, soccer, piano and so much more. Her smile is amazing and seeing her participate in the things she loved was wonderful. On September 5, 2013 the Leukemia relapsed. It was even more devastating. The family has been told that her best chance of survival is a Bone Marrow Transplant. She will complete chemo treatments through the end of this year (2013) and then hopefully (assuming a donor is found) receive a Bone Marrow Transplant in early 2014.

Sydney is the daughter to Jason and Stacy Balzer and younger sister to Jeremy.

 

Every year, there will be one family in our community chosen as our Inspirational Family and the proceeds from our event will go benefit the Passion for Life inspirational families, medical research at U of M Mott Hospital & the Passion for Life Organization

Find out more @ http://www.passion-for-life.org/