Pizza-Loving Tot Prepares for Surgery

By Natalie Rivera

Last month, the world learned a lot about Hazel Hammersely, the two-year old whose battle with stage 3 neuroblastoma spread like wildfire on the Internet.

The world heard her story thanks to some boredom, some creativity, many acts of good will and, of all things, pizza.

During a stay at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Hazel and her mother, Lauren, decided to pass the time by making a sign out of tape that said, “Send Pizza RM 4112,” in Hazel’s hospital window.

“Hazel was trying to wave at people down the street but no one was looking up, so we put up the sign and nothing happened for a few days,” said Lauren Hammersley. “But then on Saturday we got overwhelmed with pizza.” 

It turns out someone saw the sign, took a picture of the window and posted it on reddit, a social community Internet site.

After Hazel received more than 30 pizzas, the likes of CNN and the Huffington Post caught wind of Hazel’s story, as did many regular network news shows.

“We have been absolutely humbled and surprised by the outpouring of love and support from the online community and can only hope and pray that this brings awareness to Neuroblastoma and the Childhood Cancer Community,” Lauren wrote on a blog about Hazel’s journey. 

Now the world knows what a pizza aficionado Hazel is. But not everyone knows she’s one of the most energetic of Lauren and her husband, Aaron’s, four children.

Despite the pizza story, they don’t know she’s also a big eater, eating more than even her older siblings.

They don’t know that despite facing difficult experiences, she is still that spunky positive girl that runs around her hospital floor.

“She is very well known on the floor because she is never in her room, she’s in the halls walking around saying hi to everybody, making friends," said Lauren. “She brings joy to a gloomy place.”

And people probably don’t know the Hammersleys have ties to our area.

Lauren is from Moorpark and even represented the city as Ms. Moorpark in beauty pageants. Family members have attended Moorpark Presbyterian Church, and the family currently resides in Simi Valley.

Hazel’s April diagnosis has rocked the family. Lauren said that her family’s life literally changed in a couple of days when Hazel felt stomach pains.

“She has stage three of this cancer,” said Hammersley. “About 70 percent of cases are on stage four, so we really were fortunate that we caught it before it spread everywhere.”

Hazel was admitted to the hospital earlier this month because of high fever, but Lauren said that she has been doing well with her chemotherapy.

On Aug. 7, the Hammersleys learned a CT scan showed Hazel’s tumor had shrunk by more than 50 percent. Her medical team is planning a surgery to remove as much of the remaining tumor as possible. As of Wednesday, Hazel’s surgery was planned for Aug. 21, according to her blog.

In the blog post, Lauren calls the surgery “long, hard and risky” because the tumor is wrapped around the major blood vessel connected to her right kidney.

“Please keep us in mind over this next week as we feel anxious for her upcoming surgery, and of course pray like crazy on the actual day,” Lauren wrote.

Community members have been doing more than that. So far, the Hope for Hazel Facebook page has received tons of positive, encouraging and hopeful comments and people have donated more than $13,000 to the family. 

For her part, Lauren is thankful for being given the chance to tell Hazel’s story and to let people know about a cancer they may have not known before.

“What I’m most excited about is that it has raised awareness for this cancer and that we can share her story to the world,” said Lauren. “Now people can know that kids go through this and that this needs more financial support for research. You kind of know about Leukemia but there are over 20 childhood cancer and I’m glad we got share this.”

If you would like to send warm wishes to Hazel and her family, visit her Facebook page here. Donations can be made via the Talbert Family Foundation, which helps families with financial needs caused by catastrophic illnesses. Hazel’s donation page can be found here.