Earlier this month, we brought you the story of 11-year-old Avery Berg, who, in the same week she started middle school, also started radiation therapy for a rare type of brain tumor. She is battling it with good humor and her mom Kristie is sharing that humor with the world via an online chronicle, Step by Step with Awesome Avery. As mentioned in our first report, family and friends are raising money for pediatric-brain-tumor research via tomorrow’s Run of Hope. You still have time to donate to their effort. Kristie, meantime, shares what’s new with her daughter:

… This week Avery shaved her head. Most people think that only chemo makes you lose your hair, but when you radiate your whole brain, that does the trick as well. I desperately wanted to shave my head with her, but she asked me not to. “Mom, the last thing I want to see is you without hair” is actually what she said. I know shaving my head doesn’t really do much, but honestly, I just wanted to feel this loss with her. I don’t know about you, but my hair is absolutely a security blanket for me. I’ve cried on several occasions just from a bad cut!

I was surprised she didn’t have the same reaction as she had to me when she learned four of her friends were planning on shaving their heads too. Let’s just pause for a moment and remember these are middle school kids who all just started a new school! Two of them are girls with gorgeous, long, healthy hair that will take years to return. They did it during her nightly radiation treatment and in tandem with her own shave so she wouldn’t have to walk into school alone the next day. We should all be so lucky to have friends like this. Again, any expression of gratitude falls well short of how I feel. …

In the same post, she also marveled at the Run of Hope pledges for Team Awesome Avery surpassing $100,000. As of today, it’s jumped to $137,000+, yet that is still a drop in the proverbial bucket for an underfunded type of research, so their gratitude continues to grow for every new contribution … on behalf of Avery and other children who have been and will be affected until there’s a cure.

(Family photo, used with permission)