In May, 2017, shortly after her 2nd birthday, Nora Scott went to the doctor due to some oddities (pale skin, rash, and general discomfort) that was noticed. Her doctor ran some blood work and things didn't look as they should. They immediately recognized the abnormalities and sent Nora straight to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital for further testing.

Nora was poked and tested late into the evening and a little after midnight the doctor pulled us aside and explained that Nora has been diagnosed with Stage-2, High-Risk, Pre-B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with a Central Nervous System Involvement.

Taking all of that in our journey was slowly laid out in front of us and the fight was on. Nora took everything the medical staff, the chemotherapy, and leukemia threw at her with tenacity and met every challenge head on. There were ups and downs, but our faith remained and Nora’s continued show of strength held us up. Nora went into remission on June 7th, 2017.

On October 21st, 2019, after completing 2 ½ years of chemotherapy, a very happy Nora had her port removed. Since then, Nora has been enjoying the freedom from her medication and being a preschooler.

We are so grateful for the medical staff at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital enough. From day one, they took our family in and guided us through the roller-coaster of Nora’s treatment. They have become our extended family and have laughed and cried with us. Their compassion and kindness are second to none.

We want to express thanks to the University of Iowa Dance Marathon Family. Your volunteers bring joy to our children and families. There are a lot of sad and scary days spent worrying in the hospital. Sometimes our kids feel awful and as parents we feel helpless as to what we can do to make them feel better. We can’t count the amount of times we’ve felt this huge sense of relief to have someone else come in and make Nora smile. It just lifts some weight off our shoulders. She still thinks of all of the volunteers as her friends, and being the little social butterfly that she is, she could never get enough of their visits and playtime. By bringing joy to our children, they bring joy to us as parents.

For those that don’t know what Dance Marathon is, or what they do, they were an essential part of Nora’s treatment and therapy and we don’t know what we would do without their involvement in our journey.

Dance Marathon’s motto sums up their mission entirely: For. The. Kids.