When 1-year-old Alexis Paige Markley was diagnosed with a type of Leukemia common mostly to adults, her neighbors came together to help the family get through the financial burdens of the disease.
“We want to make sure we can do everything on our end,” said Tisha Johnson, a neighbor of the Markley family, in Burke.
Johnson and a few other neighbors knew the Markleys have a tough time ahead of them, both emotionally and financially, so they thought of ways to at least ease the financial part of the pain. Gina Armbrester and Sharon Tarlano live next door, and they are helping to coordinate fund raisers and donations of supplies and services. Sonia Williams, another neighbor, has set up a bank account to manage the funds for Alexis.
“This is what neighbors do,” said Armbrester. “They help each other out when there is a time of crisis.”
ALEXIS WAS diagnosed in early July with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. The average age of people with AML is 65, and less than 10 percent of the disease is found in children, according to data from the National Marrow Donor Program.
One of the major tasks facing the Markley family is preparing their home for Alexis’ return from the hospital. Since the chemotherapy she is going through kills white blood cells, the body’s main defense against infection, Ruby Markley, Alexis’ mother, said they have to make sure their home is thoroughly sterilized before Alexis can come home.
“For her to come home, it has to be the ultimate sanitary environment,” said Ruby Markley. “We have to replace the carpet. If she has to get a bone marrow transplant, we have to completely repaint the entire house.”
Johnson said the expense of doing all of the home renovations alone is extraordinary, which is why the neighbors wanted to help out as much as possible. The women have already solicited the help from Michael Johnson, store manager at the Burke Wal-Mart, to donate a $50 gift certificate. All Wal-Mart locations have a special donation fund set aside to help local causes, said Johnson. They do not contribute to individuals though, so the donation for Alexis will be given to Christ Methodist Church in Fairfax Station in honor of Alexis, and the church will then distribute the gift certificate to the Markleys.
"She's a local citizen, and we try to help our local community as much as we can," said Johnson.
The Shugard Storage company in Springfield has agreed to give the Markleys six months of free storage space to help them keep household items that have to be removed for Alexis’ safety. Without all of the neighbors’ help, Ruby Markley said she and her husband were thinking about refinancing their home in order to cover the costs of everything.
“I don’t know how we would have gotten this far without them [neighbors],” said Ruby Markley. “I can’t believe there’s people out there that will go that far when things like this happen.”
Ruby Markley’s husband, Greg, is in the military, so the couple has health insurance that will cover the cost of Alexis’ medical expenses. The neighbors have already been helping out with transportation to and from the hospital, and they’ve helped prepare meals a few times a week as well. Volunteers from Christ Methodist Church have also agreed to organize meals for the family a few days a week, said Armbrester. The Markleys have three other children at home, so the extra help from the neighbors has “been a godsend,” said Ruby Markley.
"There really are not words to describe the things they have done," said Ruby Markley.