Welcome to the Allie's Allies Shop

All proceeds from this website go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital :)

About

Allies story:

In 2013, Allie was 14 years old when she got diagnosed Anaplastic Ependymoma grade 3 brain cancer.

Allie was experiencing, what we now know were focal seizures nearly every day. Before we figured out it was seizures, we did not think it was a medical issue until Allie experienced an episode while performing with her dance team and her brain froze, preventing her to continue the rest of the performance.

Allie then went to her local pediatrician and the doctors told her it could have been nerves (which we knew was not the case), migraines....or seizures.

We followed up with an EEG, which showed seizure activity on the right side of the brain. The doctor then suggested to do a brain MRI, which we proceeded to do.

Then, our world turned upside down. The MRI showed that there was a tumor the size of a golf ball in her front right temporal lobe of her brain.

February 14th, she had an 8 1/2 hour brain surgery, where the surgeons and doctors discovered the tumor was cancerous and high grade. The diagnosis wasn't clear of what exact type of brain cancer it was. The Neuro-oncologists and surgeons agreed that it wasanaplastic ependymoma grade 3 brain cancer.

After recovering from surgery, Allie immediately became a patient at St. Jude and received 33 rounds of brain radiation.

Because St. Jude is also a research center, they continued to study Allie’s tumor.

In 2015, Allies mom got diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Shortly after, Allie's cancer relapsed. She then recieved another brain surgery and 33 more rounds of full brain and full spine radiation. This time was a little more rough. She lost all of her hair, her ability to walk for a few months, and to eat, but Allie was able to have her mom's support, as she was receiving Radiation therapy at the same time. ( shout out to Allie’s dad, Eric Allen and her brother, Zach Allen for being the best caregivers at this difficult time for both Allie and her mom, Debbi)

The outcome of St. Jude scientists studying her original tumor from 2013 was unbelievable:

Through studying Allie’s tumor for so long, St Jude discovered a brand-new type of brain cancer no one has ever seen or heard of, but one they knew is very aggressive. The doctors are calling the new diagnosis a High Grade Neuroepithelial Tumor mn1 brain cancer. (HGNETmn1.)

Although Allie's "survival rates" were low, she was able to beat the odds and graduate high school, something she was told that she would not be alive for. The miracles and the milestones did not stop there.

Allie graduated from the University of Mississippi in May 2022, got married in December 2022, bought a house with her husband and now is working for ALSAC/St.Jude. Beating the odds one by one.

The funds we raise help St. Jude treat, diagnose, and study childhood cancer.

Thank you for supporting Allie and the St. Jude patients and families. God Bless!