Longtime Glenburn resident and town employee Carline Dube emailed she reads my column faithfully and never thought her family would be in it.
But now, “I need your help to make the public aware of a fundraiser” that will benefit her granddaughter, 13-month-old Emma Yvonne Dube, who just received a new liver.
The daughter of Tom and Sarah Dube of Topsham, little sister to 5-year-old Eliza Dube and grand-daughter of Carline and Gaetan Dube, Emma is being treated for cancer at Children’s Hospital Boston.
A Benefit Spaghetti Supper, Silent Auction and Dessert Auction begins with bidding from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the supper from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, at Glenburn Elementary School on Hudson Road.
Among the items up for auction are heating oil, assorted gift cards, an Eden Pure heater and blankets as well as tickets to University of Maine Black Bear men’s hockey, football, men’s and women’s basketball games, and much more.
Sponsored by GES Parents, Teachers and Friends, admission is $5 or $3 for children 3-12.
Readers in Aroostook County may remember the Dubes when they lived there.
Earlier this week I spoke with Carline who told me that, before moving downstate 21 years ago, Tom graduated from Van Buren High School and then attended the University of Southern Maine. He now owns his own business, Dube Music, in Lisbon.
The young family’s life came crashing down upon them this summer when Emma was having a routine checkup and her pediatrician discovered, while “pressing on her little belly,” that something was not right, Carline explained.
Emma had X-rays taken and blood work done and, on June 25, at 10 months, was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma.
According to the CHB Web site, “hepatoblastoma is a very rare cancerous tumor that originates in the liver” and “primarily affects children from infancy to about 3 years of age.”
Emma’s tumor, Carline said, “was about the size of a baseball.
“We were all sick to hear what was going on with this little angel.
Emma was admitted to The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland where a biopsy was performed “and a port was installed in her little body.”
In July she began five rounds of chemotherapy which, it was hoped, would shrink the tumor enough to make an operation easier but that didn’t happen and, in mid-September, Emma was admitted to CHB where she underwent more tests.
Although Emma now weighs only 13.2 pounds, the team of doctors from CHB and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute determined she was a good candidate for a liver transplant.
Emma’s parents and grandparents met Monday with those who are caring for Emma, including the head of the transplant team, and were told the surgery could take anywhere from six to 12 hours.
“This team is one of the best, but it’s so hard because she’s so tiny. She’s not in pain, so I think all the prayers are working,” Carline said.
Emma was immediately placed at the top of the regional liver donor registry and the family was notified Wednesday that a donor liver was available.
She went into surgery at 10 p.m. that evening and came out at 9 a.m. Thursday, Carline told me while enroute to Boston to join her family.
“Everything went very well. There were no complications,” she said, and I could hear the relief in her voice.
For the Dube family, it’s been a very rough road mentally, emotionally and financially, Carline told me previously, but they have “taken heart” from all the positive feedback they’ve received and understood this was the only option available to them, and to Emma.
With Emma hospitalized in Boston, Sara is no longer working and Tom has had to take a great deal of time away from his one-man operation to be with them and care for Eliza.
If you are unable to attend the benefit but would like to help Emma’s family during this difficult time, you can send a donation to Carline Dube, P.O. Box 8245, Bangor 04402-8245 and she will place it in a fund for the family’s immediate needs.
Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; javerill@bangordailynews.com; 990-8288.