Name: Luella Rick
Age: 12
Dance Studio: Centreville Dance Academy/Centreville Dance Theatre (company), VA
Why Luella wants to be a voice for children fighting cancer:
Hi, my name is Luella, and I am a dancer. I have been dancing since I was four years old at Centreville Dance Academy in Centreville, VA. This is my 3rd year as a competitive dancer in the Centreville Dance Theatre company, and I love ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical. I would love to help be a voice for children fighting cancer.
My grandmother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma a year and a half ago. Last summer she spent weeks in the hospital for a stem cell transplant to try to kill as many of the cancer cells as possible. She is lucky that her type of cancer has a lot of researchers working on it and there are a lot of new treatments. We know that she can never be cured from Multiple Myeloma, but she may be able to live for many years with treatment that is being discovered every day.
Through my grandmother, I see what cancer can do to a person and a family, and I don’t think kids should ever have to worry about cancer! It would be very special to use my love of dance to help bring awareness to childhood cancer, to inspire children who have cancer, and to help to get more money for research and medicine. I know that this is really important from my grandmother. If I can inspire even just one child with cancer through dance to see that there is hope and to keep fighting I would love to do that.
