October 12, 2010
By Rebecca Gladden
Seven-year-old Maddison Cox is a little girl with big dreams.
For Christmas this year, she wants a telescope so she can look at the stars in Orion's belt and get a close-up view of her favorite planet, Jupiter.
When she grows up, Maddy wants to be a racecar driver just like her hero, NASCAR star Carl Edwards.
If courage and determination are any indication, she'll make it, too.
Looking at Maddy today, in her fashionable pink cap and star-shaped earrings, it's hard to imagine everything she's been through in the past few months.
Diagnosed with leukemia in August, Maddy has been undergoing treatment at the Aflac Cancer Center in Atlanta, including tests and procedures that would no doubt terrify most adults.
She's doing better now - well enough, in fact, to travel to Fontana this weekend to watch her favorite driver compete in the Pepsi Max 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
Maddy and her dad Sean were at the race track to talk about their experiences with Beads of Courage, a nonprofit organization that provides arts-in-medicine programs to children coping with serious illnesses, and to unveil the new Wingman bead, named after the Aflac duck.
Through Beads of Courage, young patients are given special beads that represent significant milestones in their treatment journey. The Wingman bead was designed to remind children facing scary and painful procedures that they are never alone.
Carl Edwards, who's sponsored by Aflac, and the entire No. 99 team were racing in support of all the Beads of Courage kids - over 10,000 to date - and their families. Maddy gave Carl her beads - the very same ones she wore in the hospital - to wear during the race, and the rest of the team wore bead necklaces just like the ones the children wear. Each crewmember will be returning one special bead with a signed card to a child currently in the hospital.
"I went to the Alfac Cancer Center a couple of years ago and I thought I was going there to inspire some people and brighten some kids' days," said Edwards. "But I went there and I quickly realized that those kids were the inspiration and they were the ones with all the courage."
It was at that first hospital visit that a young cancer patient named Dalton showed Carl his bead necklace and explained the significance of the brightly colored baubles. "Dalton was wearing a necklace just like Maddison's that was made of beads he had earned. Each one of those beads represents a time where Dalton and Maddison had to be very courageous."
Edwards proudly pointed to the Wingman bead that he was wearing, noting that it was unveiled in time for the Aflac Duck's 10th birthday on race day, 10/10/10. "The idea of the Wingman bead is to let these kids know that someone has them under their wing," he said. "Having support is the most important thing - having people you can count on." Maddy said the silver Wingman bead, in the likeness of the Aflac duck, is her favorite, too.
Also at the track on Sunday was seven-year-old Nolan Blake, another patient from the Aflac Cancer Center and the Beads of Courage program. Nolan was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in 2008 and has received high doses of chemotherapy and radiation during his treatment.
Nolan's mom Britanny told me that the Beads of Courage program has been a vital part of his healing process and that they give him something to look forward to during very trying times. His most recent MRI showed no evidence of a brain tumor and he will be undergoing another MRI when he returns to Atlanta
While Nolan loves the Wingman bead, his mom joked, "It might be tied with the Spongebob bead for his favorite."
Carl Edwards wasn't the only NASCAR Cup driver sporting a Beads of Courage logo this weekend. Jimmie Johnson had the graphic on his helmet as part of the Samsung Helmet of Hope program. In July of this year, Beads of Courage was one of the first two charities selected to be on Johnson's helmet for the Fontana race.
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Photo by Jimmie Johnson PR
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"We have a lot of pride in that program and bring a lot of recognition to small charities around the country," said Johnson after Sunday's race. "There are a lot of great stories with it."
Johnson finished the race in third place Sunday while Edwards, with mechanical problems, came in 34th.
Focusing on the positive, Edwards told a national TV audience after the race that he never gives up hope.
It's a life lesson some children learn at a very young age. As Jean Baruch, Founder of Beads of Courage noted, "Our kids face disappointment and setbacks all the time."
It's at those times when the little ones need a Wingman the most.
Note: You can be a wingman for a hospitalized child by sending a Wingman Bead and Encouragement Book to a child in your area. Visit www.BeadsofCourage.org for more information.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
