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Valley boy, 5, to lobby in D.C. for health care
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Mikey Howard, 5, of Boardman, and his dad, Mike, will speak before Congress on behalf of children’s pediatric hospitals next week to request more funding and support for pediatric health care.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
BOARDMAN
Mikey Howard is not your typical 5-year-old with leukemia.
Mikey, whose cancer is in remission, is going to Washington, D.C., June 15 and 16 to lobby legislators for funding and support for pediatric health care.
Oh, and while he’s there, he said he’d like to meet President Barack Obama.
Mikey will visit Capitol Hill with his father, Michael Howard, and his grandmother, Marcella “Gee” Howard of Austintown, as part of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals’ Family Advocacy Day.
Staying home are his mother, Nancy Howard, and sisters, Sydney Howard, 4, and Paige De-Rhodes, 12.
The Howard family is one of 34 families from 21 states and the District of Columbia who will participate in Family Advocacy Day.
“Mikey is a special child, and he and all children need all the resources possible at the national level to help us care for them,” said Dr. Ayman Saleh, head of Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s Blood and Cancer Center/Infusion Center.
Mikey, who was busy making cards to give to legislators during Akron Children’s press conference Thursday announcing the D.C. trip, was 41/2 when he was diagnosed with t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on May 11, 2009, a day his father called the family’s “Pearl Harbor.”
His parents had brought Mikey to Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley worried because he had persistent bruises on his legs, was bloated and “just wasn’t himself.”
The leukemia diagnosis “completely turned our lives upside down,” said Mikey’s mother, as Mikey was pulled out of preschool and they began making frequent trips to the hospital for labs, bone marrow aspirations, radiation treatments and chemotherapy.
The Howards operate a family business in Campbell, Mike’s Famous Hot Dogs.
“Mikey thinks it’s his,” his father said of the restaurant.
Mikey’s cancer has been in remission since July 2009, and he is on the second phase of maintenance treatment.
“He has bad days, and the treatments have been rough on him, but he is a trouper,” his father said.
His hair is growing back, and he is looking forward to visiting Gettysburg as part of the D.C. trip, and a trip to Disney World this summer. And, if his blood count stays good, he will attend kindergarten at Canfield schools this fall, at least until the flu season starts.