Tahlequah mom's head to be shaved on national television

Sept. 04--TAHLEQUAH -- Angela Williams wanted to do something big for her son Emmett and other sick children. She didn't know it would mean shaving her head in front of millions.

Williams said she joined 46mommas.com because 3-year-old Emmett nearly died from a rare form of cancer. She thought their efforts to raise public awareness would be relatively small scale.

She will lose her dark, curly hair Tuesday in Los Angeles. Forty-five other women will do the same. The group takes its name from the fact that 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every day.

The Stand Up To Cancer website says a Friday follow-up event will feature stars like George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Will Smith and Denzel Washington. The one-hour event is to be simultaneously broadcast at 7 p.m. on television networks ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and several cable channels.

The only "momma" from Oklahoma, Williams said she and her husband James had a difficult journey through the stages of Emmett's illness.

"First there were some personality changes," she said. "There was a lot of crankiness, not wanting to swallow food, sleep disturbances, he wanted to be carried a lot. He did not want to walk. On Aug. 17 (2009) Emmett and I were out shopping when I noticed a swollen area on the left side of his neck. With all the other things that had been happening, it was not a good sign."

Angela and James took their son to pediatrician Dr. Naveed Saddique, who sent them to Tahlequah City Hospital for blood tests and an X-ray. After seeing the radiologist's report, he referred the family to an oncologist at St. Francis Children's Hospital in Tulsa. That alarmed Angela.

"I looked up childhood cancer on the Internet," she said. "It frightened me. I thought, 'How could this happen to this little boy who has been the light of our lives? It just can't be.'"

In Tulsa, doctors took a tissue sample to find out whether Emmett had cancer and how advanced it was.

"When we were there, the earth was being ripped from beneath our feet," Williams said. "Our world just shrank to a pinhole. I saw that we were on the floor of this hospital with families all going through the same thing."

Results confirmed that Emmett had stage-four cancer of a type later identified as neuroblastoma. It started on his adrenal gland, invaded his bone marrow and started growing near a valve in his heart.

Emmett was taken to other hospitals for a risky process that included high-dose chemotherapy, a stem cell harvest, and surgery to remove tumors. Angela said miracles happened at each step, and her son survived. Support groups helped her handle the fear.

"There was so much horror and so much beauty," she said. "We were walking half in light and half in the dark. But, there was so much love."

In January, People Against Cancer issued a request for "46 mommas" to join the public head shaving and follow-up event.

"I thought, 'How am I going to do this? I'm just a mom from Tahlequah,'" Williams said. "After I committed to shave my head, I found out that the goal is to be on national TV and to raise $1 million for St. Baldrick's Foundation. We are going to stand in solidarity with kids facing cancer. It's going to be one of the biggest moments of my life."

Tiffany Beamer, 46mommas team leader from Nashville, Tenn., said the Tuesday head shaving will take place at the Hollywood & Highland Center, outside the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

A team from Stand Up To Cancer will videotape the event to be shown at the Sept. 10 celebrity gala.

"They have had public shavings before, but less than 10 percent of those have been women," she said. "We've been working on this for a year. There will be about 85 of us going to Los Angeles with the 46 mommas. Some people have donated airline miles to us. A lot of the moms are paying their own way. I'm excited and a little nervous."

Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925 or kpurtell @muskogeephoenix.com.

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