Kids With Cancer Have Prom, Too

Get A Chance To Forget About Illness And Celebrate, At Hospital

(CBS)  June is prom season at high schools across the country.

But what about children who are in the hospital being treated for cancer?

They have prom, too, as Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez discovered when she visited New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

With donated tuxes, dresses, make-up and prizes, the pediatric cancer patients enjoyed their annual Pediatrics Spring Prom to help them forget about cancer for a few hours and celebrate.

Eight-year-old Megan Przekurat attended, despite receiving a high dose of chemotherapy recently, according to her mother, Donna Przekurat.

"I'm surprised she's actually walking around," Donna said.

Ashley Conrad attended the prom, too, despite missing her school prom this year.

A talented dancer, Conrad, 18, was diagnosed when she began to experience back pain, and discovered it was cancer.

"This is our moment to finally feel like we belong," she said. " ... You're always feeling sick all the time. It's kind of not-so-great. ...ut in the dress I didn't really feel sick. I felt beautiful and happy. ... I felt normal."

Dr. Farid Boulad, medical director of the Pediatric Day Hospital at Memorial Sloan-Kettering said, "That's the magic -- is that they go from kids who are sick who have sickness and illness and they feel so beautiful."

Lisa Binkley whose 9-year-old son, Aiden, was diagnosed with cancer, told Rodriguez, "(A cancer diagnosis is) the worst thing that you could ever hear, and it's your worst nightmare come true."

But Binkley added the prom helps in the healing process.

Conrad, who was named the prom’s queen, said, "People look at children in wheelchairs ... whot don't have hair or that are missing a limb or an eye ... and they look at them differently. But I just I see the smiles, I see how happy they are, regardless of what's going on."

[toth8346]

Our daughter Morgan has been battling brain cancer since she was eight months old. She is now three years old and she only has five weeks of treatment to go. The pediatric unit at Sloan Kettering is our normal. This was Morgan's first prom. She won prom queen for her age category. Our two other children also attended the prom. Morgan is a strong willed girl with a big heart and a big smile. She touches the lives of those she has come in contact with. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything the Early Show would like to find out about Morgan's treatment. We would love to express our gratitude to the doctors and nurses at Sloan Kettering. We would also like to express to the families out there going through the trials and tribulations of cancer that you have to be strong and be there for one another. Thank you.