Luke's Story

Luke James Sechevich was diagnosed with high risk medulloblastoma on January 30, 2006 at the age of 1-½. Luke had 2 operations in the month of February to remove the tumor from his brain and spent 3 weeks in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. He went through 6 weeks of localized radiation which required him to be sedated everyday for 1 month, and 12 months of chemotherapy. In March of 2007 he was 2 months short of completing his recommended treatment when the tumor came back in his spine and paralyzed him from the waist down. He spent 3 weeks in the hospital receiving high doses of steroids, and mannitol, began another 6 weeks of radiation therapy and started physical therapy to attempt to regain his ability to move his legs. He had a stem cell transplant which is when a patient receives lethal doses of chemotherapy and is given back their own stem cells to allow their body to recover, during that time he spent 5 weeks in the hospital, 3 of which were in the intensive care unit. He was released from the hospital on September 1, 2007 and several weeks later began walking with the use of a walker. In December of 2007 he began to show signs of weakness and on January 2, 2008 he was taken to the Pediatric Hematology clinic where he would stop breathing, he was resuscitated and was sent for an emergency MRI which would reveal that the tumor had come back in his brain and covered his entire spine. We brought him home to be with his brother and puppies one last time. He passed away peacefully on January 3, 2008 at 6:45pm in his bed with his mom, dad, brother Matthew and beloved stuffed animal “Tut” watching Curious George, only 24 hours after having heard the news that he had relapsed.

Luke is the inspiration for The Angel Walk, he fought so hard to regain his ability to walk, to fight this cancer, he was so very brave, and he always had a beautiful smile on his face through it all. I organize this walk for Luke, and for all children battling this disease that someday there will be a cure.

Please help MUSC find a cure, every donation makes a difference in the life of a child!