It happened fast. One day, Spencer Barnum was living the normal life of a 9-year-old girl – playing soccer and going on field trips with her school class – and a few days later she was diagnosed with leukemia.  

“One day after a soccer game, she told me she didn’t feel good,” said Lauren Barnum, Spencer’s mother. “The next day she said she felt tired. The next day she had a fever and her stomach was bloated. She was a super-skinny kid, and we’d been telling her to eat more. We thought her bloated stomach was from that.”

Spencer’s early cancer symptoms presented the same as cold symptoms, and for the first two weeks doctors treated her symptoms the same as they would the common cold.

Spencer missed two weeks of school to rest while she fought the cold. But Spencer grew progressively more tired, she looked pale and she began throwing up the decongestant.

Spencer’s parents took her to the Page Hospital ER and the doctors ran a broader spectrum of tests. One of the tests showed that her kidneys were failing. And another test showed that she had leukemia. 

The diagnoses hit like a bombshell. Surely, the doctors were wrong.

“I didn’t believe him,” Lauren said. “No, you’re wrong. You don’t know. You’re not a specialist. I think back about it now and realize I was wrong, but I guess your mind doesn’t process this very well when you first hear it.”

The reason Spencer’s kidneys were failing was because they were trying to filter out an overwhelming level of foreign bodies, which, in this case, were leukemia cells. 

A few hours later, now in Phoenix Children’s Hospital, a new set of doctors – this time including cancer specialists – ran more tests. 

“When they got the results they went into super-crazy mode,” said Lauren. 

The doctors had discovered that Spencer’s kidneys were failing, her lungs were on ther verge of collapsing and her heart was beating irregularly. Doctors immediately started procedures to bring Spencer’s vitals and organ function back to a more stable level. And because Spencer’s lymphoblastic cell count was so high, doctors also started her on chemotherapy.

“These kinds of cancer cells just keep creating themselves,” Lauren explained. 

Once the doctors stabilized Spencer, they told the Barnums what kind of cancer Spencer had, what their plan was to attack it, and what the side effects of that action would be.

The Barnums were reeling. They had just received an overwhelming amount of bad news to process all at once.

“I felt bogged down with so much information,” she said. “It was frustrating not to know what’s going on. They told me what they were going to do, but what does that even mean? And worst of all, your child is going through so much.”

And outside of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, life was still going on. The Barnums have four kids between the ages of 13 and 2, who were still in Page being looked after by relatives and friends.

They were exhausted. They hadn’t eaten a decent meal or had adequate sleep in days. They had to figure out how they were going to take care of Spencer in Phoenix and the rest of their family in Page. 

“In that situation, when you have to go to the hospital, you just go,” Lauren said.  “You don’t bring a change of clothes. You don’t bring food.”

It was about then that Allie’s Angels reached out to them. 

“Brittany Hansen was the first one to reach out to us,” Lauren said. “She said how sorry she was. And then they brought us gift cards for clothes, food and gas.”

Allie’s Angels is a Page nonprofit that raises money for families with children battling cancer or other long-term illnesses. The money helps the family pay for travel, lodging and food costs incurred while their child undergoes care. This year marks the sixth year of Allie’s Angels helping Page families. The foundation is named after Allie Hansen, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in October 2016, when she was just 9 years old. The foundation was founded by CJ and Brittany Hansen (Allie’s parents) and Kelly Hansen to help families with children undergoing cancer treatment or other long-term childhood illness. 

The other board members include Allie Hansen, Shaundiin Begay, Amanda Smith, Jodi Tate, Aaron Tate, Kenzie Hansen and Zoey Tate.

Allie’s Angels has sponsored close to 30 kids on some level since its founding.

After Allie was diagnosed with cancer, CJ and Brittany spent a lot of time traveling to and from treatments, most of which happened in Phoenix. The expenses from travel, lodging and eating on the road became quickly became a huge expense, which added more stress to an already stressful situation.

“We want to do whatever we can do to help take some of that burden off their plates,” said Brittany. “That’s really important to us.”

For the Barnums, receiving financial support from Allie’s Angels helped them a lot, but the moral support and positive advice was even more valuable, said Lauren.

“There were so many side effects from the chemo, and at first it seems like the procedure just made things worse,” Lauren said. “But it’s that or die. You have to trust what they’re telling you is the best option. But a lot of the time there were side effects they didn’t tell us about that they weren’t expecting. I needed someone to talk to about it, and I talked to Brittany 

quite a bit. It helped a lot to have someone tell me, ‘Hey, that happened to us too and everything turned out fine.’”

Brittany has helped the Barnums with some of the in-home therapies too.

“When we first had to do syringes of chemo for Spencer, Brittany came over and showed us how to do the shot,” said Lauren. “The needle seemed really long. It seemed scary. Brittany sat with us and made sure we know how to do it. It felt a lot more reassuring coming from her than from a doctor.”

Brittany and CJ Hansen help the adults through a very difficult time, while Allie Hansen plays a big role helping the child who is going through cancer treatments. Having gone through it herself, she understands the fear, pain and anxiety the treatments can cause.

“She has certainly a say in what is beneficial for the kid,” said Brittany. “Of the people on our board, she’s the one who has gone through it. It’s one thing for the child to have their parent or a doctors tell them everything is going to be okay, but it means a lot to hear it from someone who has been through what they’re going through.”

Allie’s Angels holds a yearly fundraiser with the help of the Sand Devils football team and some Page sponsors. This year’s fundraiser was held Sept. 29, a home game against Ganado. Part of the tradition is having the game ball and the guests of honor, Allie Hansen and Spencer Barnum, delivered onto the field by Classic Air Medical. 

For every touchdown the Sand Devils score, Page Lumber and Dixie Ellis Lower Antelope Canyon Tours each donates $400 to Allie’s Angels. The Sand Devils scored seven touchdowns. Additional money was raised throughout the game during a Miracle Minute, when donations were collected from fans in the stands. The football game is Allie’s Angels main fundraiser for the year.

This is the sixth time that Page Lumber has been sponsor, and the second time that Dixie Ellis Lower Antelope Canyon Tours has been a sponsor.

“We can’t thank Doug and Sherri Gardner, and Dixie Ellis and Leilah Young, enough for their generosity,” said Brittany Hansen.

Page High School head football coach Leland “Bubba” Billie has been involved with the Allie’s Angels fundraiser since its first year, back when he was still an assistant coach. 

“It’s always an emotional game for me,” he said. “When that chopper lands the tears start flowing. When I became head coach, that was one tradition I made sure we kept.”