Friends Of Student Raise Money For Cancer
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- St. Thomas More student Gabe Cippolone lost all of his hair during chemo treatments in his second bout with cancer.
Cippolone was diagnosed with a malignant kidney tumor in 2010. A check-up this past January found a nodule on his lung.
In Ms. Mary Lou Conroy's second grade class at St. Thomas More, Leo Farmerie, Gus Cramer and Trey Pauley are getting ready for some serious buzz cuts.
Actually, on May 1, they're shaving their head for a good cause.
"I'm going to have my head shaved because I don't want him to feel like the odd one out – the only one bald," Gabe's classmate, Leo Farmerie, said.
"Of course, we pray every day for Gabe -- both here in school and at home – and the kids, they wanted to do more," Gabe's teacher, Mary Lou Conroy, said.
Farmerie pitched the idea of shaving his head to his parents.
"We just told him, if you're going to do it, raise money while you do it," Leo's mother, Carrie Farmerie, said.
That's when more buddies got on board for Gabe.
"I feel bad for him because he had it twice," a classmate said.
"He's cool, he nice and he's fun to be around," another classmate added.
Using the St. Baldrick's Foundation for Children's Cancer Research's website, the boys have raised nearly $7,000 in under a month.
"When Gabe doesn't feel well enough to come to school he Skypes some of his lessons. KDKA-TV took the opportunity to ask what he thinks of his friend's efforts."
"I think they're very nice and helpful," Gabe said.
And they're not finished yet.
"I think we have to dream a little bigger," Farmerie said.
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