St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year

Each year the St. Louis Of the Year team works with local families affected by blood cancer to share their story with our candidate teams. Everything we do throughout the next 7-weeks is for patients just like Piper, Charlie, Michelle, Penelope and Lucan. Take a moment to get to know our Honored Heroes and learn more about them and their journey.

Nolan Kesel, 2025 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero
Burkitt Lymphoma

Mackenzie Earls, 2024 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero
B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Mackenzie is currently undergoing delayed intensification for B-CELL Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Mackenzie enjoys playing with her Barbie Dolls and Magna Tiles. She also loves watching “Chip & Potato” and “Miraculous.”

Mackenzie was four years old and diagnosed with B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in early January 2023. Unfortunately, this is news no parent ever wants to hear. She is about to enter the maintenance phase of her treatment. She still has less than two years of treatment if everything goes well. Before her diagnosis, she was an independent little girl who loved Barbies, baby dolls, and getting to play her first year of soccer. It was during soccer that we noticed a change in her. She constantly complained about her legs hurting. She went to bed early and without eating, which was unlike her. We had discovered that she had a double ear infection and thought that was why she was tired. However, even after the antibiotics were done, she just got worse. We finally decided to take her to Mercy Kids ER and have them run labs. Unfortunately, the news we got broke us. My daughter is a mommy’s girl, so I took time off work and then decided to quit my job to be a full-time stay-at-home mom and caregiver. She just turned 5 in July, and her treatment has become her new normal, as well as seeing her nurses and staff at her office. We all are so thankful for the doctors, nurses, and staff for making this diagnosis easier on our girl, so much so that she loves coming to the office to see everyone.

Lorelai Clubb, 2023 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero
Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Lorelai is 19-years-old and lives in Cape Girardeau with her mom & dad! Lorelai was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in April of 2015.

She loves reading, spending time with her dog, photography, and collecting/playing vinyl records!

Zephany Bolduc, 2022 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Zephany's Story

September 4, 2019 is a night our family will never forget.

I had noticed that Zephany had Petechiae on her back and stomach for approximately 2 weeks. While taking her sister to the doctor I did inquire about the Petechiae that Zephany had. The doctor told me to take her to the ER for lab work to see what was the cause. (I think she knew deep down what it could be). Other than being tired (what teenager isn't) there were no other symptoms such as, fever, loss of appetite, bruising, bleeding, weight loss. In fact, her sister Jezeca, has a bleeding disorder and she had Petechiae which led to her diagnosis. I went home and waited for the bus. Once Zephany arrived, we went to the ER. After they drew blood, we waited, and I was still thinking, Zephany has Factor X deficiency, the same bleeding disorder her sister has. Soon the doctor came into the room with 2 nurses, and each nurse went to the girls and started talking to them, a distraction from what the doctor was about to tell me. Never in a million years did I expect him to say "I believe your daughter has leukemia, she's very sick and we have called the Cardinal Glennon transport team to come get her". I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I looked at the doctor and said, "I'll be right back". I went into the hall and cried. I was alone with my girls and now I have to call my husband, a trucker, that is 7 hours from being home. Zephany gets picked up and I follow the ambulance to my exit and I'm praying. Zephany had to go on alone with strangers not knowing how sick she was or what was wrong with her. She was so brave. Once I got Jezeca taken care of (thank goodness for amazing friends) I got to the hospital and Zephany was already getting a platelet transfusion. Surgery the next day for a bone marrow biopsy. Later in the day, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia was confirmed. Later that night her daddy made it to her bedside. We were heartbroken and scared for our little girl. Next day, another transfusion, port placed and a roadmap for the next 2.5 years.

Daddy spent the nights at the hospital and I would put Jezeca on the bus and make the drive to the hospital so Richard could do local work and keep making a paycheck. Sometimes we saw each other but on weekends we were together in the hospital. Very stressful for us, but we had to make it work. We needed the income and thankfully I didn't work due to the girls needing me at home with them as they both have special needs. Not sure how Jezeca felt about being dropped off somewhere and someone picking her up. She seemed to handle it well and I am sure better than mom and dad did.

Long 2.5 years but Zephany is in remission and recently rang the bell. Cancer took 8th, 9th and 10th grade from her, her hair (2 times) gymnastics, cheerleading, roller coasters, friends, vacations from her. Now that has changed because she is on medical homebound and gets 1 hour of school each day on the computer with her teacher, she's back on 2 cheerleading/dance teams and working on gymnastics. Her hair is growing fast. In 2021, we did take a long vacation to the Northeast but had to have a list of hospitals in case of an emergency. Hopefully when she returns to school (hopefully) her Junior year, her friends will remember her and welcome her back. One thing cancer didn't take from Zephany was her spirit and smile. She's never felt sorry for herself and has never asked "why did I get cancer?"

Zephany will continue to go to Costas Center to be checked monthly. The next 2 years she will be followed closely as there is a risk of relapse. In 5 years, she will be Cancer Free.

Thank you all for supporting Zephany and the family on this long journey.

Kale West, 2021 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero
High-Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Kale's Story

Kale was diagnosed with High-Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on March 22, 2019 at the age of 8. It rocked the West household and began a journey we never thought we’d be on. The symptoms leading up to diagnosis built over the course of a couple of weeks. It started with fatigue, nausea, and vomiting a yellow bile liquid. Then he developed enlarged lymph nodes on his neck. The day of diagnosis he had patecheia, little blood vessels under the skin. He was considered high risk because his white blood cell count was so high at the time of diagnosis. The doctors moved quickly, he had his port placed the very next day and chemo began 2 days later. It was a very scary and unknown time – we were numb and on information overload. Kale however, was amazingly strong and resilient.

Treatment protocol starts with 30 days of intensive chemotherapy with the goal of reducing leukemia blasts in the blood to minimal residual levels which they consider remission. If you can reach remission in the first 30 days then you begin the next phase called Consolidation. Over the last almost 2 years treatment has consisted of IV chemos, at home oral chemos, oral steroids, multiple spinal taps with chemo injected into the spine, and a series of side effect medications. When we started, Kale could not swallow a pill, now he is a champ and is so responsible about making sure they’re taken and he doesn’t miss a dose. There were times he was taking upwards of 26 pills at a time!

Kale is well known with the nurses and caregivers at the hospital and our Oncology clinic because he is so sweet natured, loves to joke, and pull pranks. He’s a friend to all and makes everyone around him smile. The nurses, doctors, child life specialist, and caregivers have become like family to us, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their part in our journey.

Kale’s cancer journey has been one of faith and joy. We’ve learned to take it a day at a time, trust in God’s plan, and find the joy in every piece of the journey. Our family, friends, and the community have been so supportive and loving and it really powers Kale and our family. Currently we have an end of treatment date set for July 9, 2021, the day after his 11th birthday. We will celebrate him BIG for all he has had to endure and go through, and we pray he stays in remission and can get back to the activities he loves but hasn’t been able to do because of his treatment.

Emma Pullman, 2020 St. Louis Student Visionaries of the Year Honored Hero

Emma’s story: It all started when I had been coughing a lot. We didn’t think much of it at first. Then, I went to a hockey practice and I couldn’t breathe. So we decided to go to the doctor. The doctor said he couldn’t figure out what it was, so he sent us to the ER. They took some x-rays of my lungs. They found out one of my lungs was deflated. It was deflated because I had a tumor collapsing the lung. They told me I had cancer.

Emma’s mom shares: Emma’s journey has been challenging and wonderful. She has been strong through everything. She went from going to the clinic 5 times a week to only 1 time last month. She has celebrated birthdays and holidays in the hospital, yet remained so positive. She has had gallbladder surgery and having no gallbladder will affect her for the rest of her life.

This has been a life changing event for our whole family. I had to quit my job for a year and a half. Her treatments and sickness took over our lives. Both her brothers were very scared. Her 12 year old brother dealt with her diagnosis in a bad way. He shut down, became harmful to himself, gave up on school and activities, and gained a lot of weight. Thankfully, the cancer center offers free therapy which we all take advantage of. Her older brother and father have been very supportive, missing work to be with her.

For many months, Emma used a wheelchair. One of her chemotherapy drugs caused extreme weakness, which made it hard for her to walk. We worked to make her room more accessible for her. She frequently felt ill and slept. She has an lumbar puncture every 5 weeks, which wears her out. She also missed a ton of school as well as social functions and time with her friends. Despite this, she was able to maintain A’s thanks to her tutor.

She has had the opportunity to a lot of cool things and had many adventures through her treatment journey. She met Louie from the St. Louis Blues, went to hockey games, and got autographs. She’s been to the Fox Theatre and the Muny. She traveled to Paris for her Make-A-Wish trip. She is doing much better now. Things are still hard and not back to normal, but they are better.