eCaring: Charitable Giving Online Can Be Easy and Safe

Charitable donating can be easy and safe when it's done on the Web.

ByABC News
December 21, 2007, 11:01 AM

Dec. 22, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Something was wrong with Abby.

The little girl with the bright blue eyes and sweet smile had always been on the go, an active toddler who loved playing with her older brother and sister in their Atlanta home. But her parents started to get worried in the spring of 2006 when their baby girl was having trouble keeping her balance. She was falling down a lot. She stumbled while trying to push her doll stroller.

The family hoped for the best. Maybe it was just an inner ear infection, they thought. So they took Abby to the local hospital. A CT scan was ordered. The results were devastating for the young parents. Their little girl, just 23 months old, had cancer.

Abby was diagnosed with a brain tumor on March 3. Three days later, she underwent surgery to remove the tumor. At that point, she could no longer walk. Abby suffered through 12 exhausting months of chemotherapy and six weeks of daily radiation.

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Abby's final radiation treatment took place on May 28, 2007. The summer passed and she gradually regained some strength. By this fall, she was even well enough to start preschool. But in September, an MRI exam revealed that Abby had three more tumors. These were on her spine and inoperable. The only option was more chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Abby has had multiple blood transfusions, and in November, she spent more time at the hospital than at home.

Abby's aunt, Christy Bennett, wanted people to know about pediatric brain disease and the toll it takes.

"I was watching what Abby was going through every day," Bennett says. "That made me want to raise as much money as possible to help research the disease. If you see a child suffer like this, then you want to find a cure."

So Bennett set up an online fundraising page at Firstgiving.com, a Web site where individuals raise money for nonprofit organizations in the U.S. There, using a template provided by the service, she set up a Web page. She wrote about Abby's struggle, and asked people to support her participation in the annual William's Walk & Run, an event to raise money for the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children, a nonprofit organization founded to help families of children with brain and spinal cord tumors.