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14 L E h a V R e n e w s D E C E M B E R Brave Flushing girl, 7, fights brain cancer 14 LEHAVRE courier | DECEMBER 2014 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM Bayside small businesses praised by feds BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ With more small businesses than big box stores on Bell Boulevard, the commercial strip was the perfect destination for the head of the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) when she made the trip to New York last week. “I’m so excited to be here in Bayside,” said Maria Contreras- Sweet, administrator of SBA. “Unlike many other places, Bell Boulevard has such a high concentration of small businesses and I want to keep this area thriving.” Contreras-Sweet, along with Congresswoman Grace Meng, spoke to the owners of Bayside Milk Farm and went behind the food market’s deli to try out some of the food. During the trip, Contreras-Sweet urged business owners to use the free resources that SBA provides. Many new initiatives, Contreras-Sweet said, are meant to help small businesses modernize their tools. Small businesses can get technical assistance through a program called Operation HOPE. Entrepreneurs can also get loans and business counseling through SBA’s Direct Resource Packet, which brings together information about lenders and counselors in one document online. “Thank you for your voice and thank you for all the great work you’re doing,” Meng said to Contreras-Sweet. BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ Danielle Chase was taking photos at a baby shower in early August when she noticed that when she asked her 7-year-old daughter Izabella to smile for the camera only one half of her mouth moved. “Izzy, Why aren’t you smiling?” Chase recalls asking her daughter over and over again before the little girl told her, “I am, mom.” That, combined with a bunch of recent stumbles and unusual clumsiness, prompted the Flushing mom to take the second-grader to the hospital . “Never in a million years did I think they were going to tell me she had brain cancer,” Chase said about the heartbreaking moment when doctors at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center discovered a Grade 1 cancerous tumor. “Everything moved really fast after that.” On Aug. 3, just two days after taking Izabella to the hospital, the doctors attempted to remove the tumor. Sadly, they couldn’t get all of it. A piece was left too deep in the brain for surgeons to reach without risking brain damage, her mom said, Instead, Izabella, who’s known as Izzy, needs a scan every two months to monitor the tumor, which they fear will continue to grow and require treatment. She also has a shunt in her brain that releases spinal fluid into her stomach, and has to deal with the loss of sight from the surgery. “I felt like I was ice skating on one foot,” Izabella said, describing the clumsy sensation she felt before the surgery. “But now I feel like I’m ice skating on two feet and I’m slipping everywhere.” Chase, a single mother who had to quit her job to take care of Izabella, is overwhelmed with with medical bills and the family has an online fund for donations. Chase will hold a charity event at Tequila Sunrise on Nov. 16 to raise money for Izabella’s medical bills. “If I ask people for anything, I ask them for prayers first before money,” Chase said. Izabella had to be taken out of her school Sacred Heart Elementary School in Bayside because of her severely reduced vision. She will be starting home schooling soon and Sacred Heart’s administrators have been very supporting, according to Chase. Izabella says she wants to be a surgeon when she grows and help little kids like herself. Every once in a while she thinks back to early August. “And she tells me, ‘Mommy, remember that brain ball they took out of me. I’m going to take it and send it straight to hell’,” Chase said. Photo courtesy of Danielle Chase Photo courtesy of the borough president’s office


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