Copyright © 2020 by Tom, Kari, and Emily Whitehead Foreword copyright © 2020 by Ken Burns Cover design by Laura Klynstra Cover photography courtesy of the author Cover copyright © 2020 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Worthy Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 worthypublishing.com twitter.com/worthypub First edition: October 2020 Worthy is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Worthy name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020938836 ISBNs: 978-1-5460-3411-7 (hardcover), 978-1-5460-3412-4 (ebook) E3-20200914-JV-NF-ORI CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Foreword Chapter 1: Only the Strongest Children Are Picked to Fight Cancer Chapter 2: Our New Reality Chapter 3: Please Pray for Emily Chapter 4: Only Worry When They Go Quiet Chapter 5: You’re in Charge of Hope Chapter 6: Back Home Chapter 7: I Love Lucy Chapter 8: THON Chapter 9: Relapse Chapter 10: It’s Back Chapter 11: How Can We Save Emily? Chapter 12: Prayer Requests Chapter 13: The Trojan Horse and the Chimera Chapter 14: Say Goodbye to Emily Chapter 15: We Believe Chapter 16: Dr. Cowboy Chapter 17: #WeBelieve Chapter 18: Witnessing a Miracle Chapter 19: Homecoming Epilogue: What’s Happened Since Emily Came Home Afterword by Emily Photos Acknowledgments Discover More About the Authors Praise for Praying for Emily My dad taught me to have faith. My mom taught me the importance of science. Together we created my miracle. This is our story. —Emily Whitehead Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more. Tap here to learn more. FOREWORD I meet a lot of everyday heroes in my work: the intrepid explorers who followed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark into the uncharted territories of the Pacific Northwest. The soldiers who lived through the traumatic blood, sweat, and tears of World War II and Vietnam. The athletes who persevered in the face of insidious assaults on their character—and their person—to integrate professional sports. But none of them is any more heroic than Emily Whitehead, who endured a degree of pain that most of us can barely imagine to prove that a risky, experimental cancer treatment could save her life and the lives of thousands of other children. She, too, is a pioneer. She, too, is a warrior. She, too, has persevered. As have her parents. As did the thousands of strangers who hoped and prayed for her, united by the simple hashtag #WeBelieve. We know about the trials and tribulations of scientists and doctors who labor for decades to make revolutionary discoveries, but rarely do we hear about their patients, who are truly on the front lines. At a time when it seems we can’t agree on anything in this culture, we can agree that Emily Whitehead is a hero. When we first met her, Emily was a five-year-old who spent much of her life in hospitals, surrounded by technology, or at home, trying to live a normal life, as her body began to betray her. We watched (and filmed) as she hovered near death while doctors feverishly tried to save her. We heaved our own sighs of relief when she went into remission after becoming the first child whose immune cells were successfully trained to fight cancer. To be honest, we had feared her story would have a far different ending. Today Emily is a healthy fifteen-year-old who gets straight As, loves art, and, as you are about to see, is able to write about her parents as wisely as they write about her. Like many teenagers, Emily cares deeply about the challenges her generation faces, from the traumatic effects of bullying to global warming, and she travels the country telling her own story because she believes passionately in doing what she can to raise money for research that will treat other cancers, and save other children (although she also does admit it’s “kind of cool” to have your name on T-shirts). While her parents say she likes being different, even “a little weird because it keeps things interesting,” it’s also clear (and I hope she doesn’t mind my saying it) that the most wonderful thing about her is, simply, that she’s a normal teenager—although as the father of one, I know that there is no such thing as a “normal” teenager! We were fortunate and honored to have had the opportunity to chronicle Emily’s journey in our film Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies. I’m so glad her father, her mother, and Emily herself have now given us a chance to hear the rest of her story. We have a lot to learn from her. —Ken Burns Chapter 1 ONLY THE STRONGEST CHILDREN ARE PICKED TO FIGHT CANCER “OK.” That was all I could say to the doctor. I briefly glanced back at my mom who was with me in the ER. The doctor went right into the lab values, what was high, what was low, what the normal ranges were, which I didn’t hear a word of. I was just thinking, “How am I going to tell Emily? She’s only five. She’s not going to understand.” —Kari’s journal May 29, 2010 The Friday before Memorial Day, I was up in the bucket truck overlooking a farm field in Grassflat, Pennsylvania, with a crew of linemen replacing cross arms on power poles. We’d met up near dawn among the cornstalks, where we put on big rubber gloves, testing for stray voltage and grounding the lines, before we switched out the cross arms. Getting the job going
