Child Cancer Victim Remembered With Tea Party

OMAHA, Neb. - Sometimes strangers are just friends you don't know yet. At least that's the case with two Omaha families brought together in an unusual way, brought together by the joy of a tea party.

Tracey Ackerman gets slightly embarrassed when she talks about the way she met Marjorie Lusk. Ackerman said she was looking through the obituaries column in the newspaper when she came across the death notice for Lusk's 8-year-old daughter, Tanner. It was September 2007.

The obituary lead Ackerman to the child's Web site. Ackerman said she was drawn to the family's story and spent hours reading the Lusk family's blog that detailed the last five years of the little girl's life.

Tannerville.com

Tanner fought an aggressive cancer in her skull that eventually spread to the rest of her body. Her parents moved from California to Nebraska so the girl could be treated by specialists at Omaha's Children's Hospital.

"There was something about her face, her smile and her eyes and it just caught me," Ackerman said, after studying Tanner's story.

Pictures and slide shows depicting the little girl's battle captivated Ackerman, the mother of three children. Three years ago, the family moved from England to Nebraska. Ackerman's husband, Will, was stationed in the military.

Ackerman wanted to find a way to reach out to the Lusk family. She noticed they were active in the Omaha Milestones CureSearch walk to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Last year, three months before Tanner's death, the Lusk family raised $10,000 for the organization. Their team name was "Tanner's Termites."

"If it was my child, I'd want someone to stand up for them," Ackerman said.

Ackerman said an idea hit her one day as she sat in her car at a stop light.

"I'm English and I thought I could do 'Tanner's Tea'," she said.

Ackerman approached Marjorie Lusk and pitched her idea to host an English high tea.

"She's just incredible," Lusk said.

"I was extremely touched that Tanner could touch someone like this who she didn't even know," Lusk said.

Ackerman and her daughters wrote to sponsors and got their church involved in planning a fundraising tea party for CureSearch. She's recruited family and friends to help serve guests. Ackerman even asked her sister to deliver tea for the party from her native country.

"It's tea from England," she said.

Lusk was moved by the gesture and said Tanner's grandmother introduced her little girl to fancy tea parties. One family photo shared by Lusk features Tanner at a tea party with her sister, Hope, and a friend.

"She just always loved the little cucumber sandwiches and mini-desserts," Lusk said.

When Ackerman visited the family to propose the idea, Lusk offered her Tanner's special tea party cake plate to use for the event.

Lusk and her husband, Chris, continue to be active in supporting other families whose lives are impacted by a child's cancer diagnosis.

"I want to make this my mission to help other kids just like Tanner. She's not here to benefit. But I know the suffering and hurt they feel and there's no way I want that to continue," Lusk said.

Lusk said as the parent of a child with cancer, she's used to fighting. She and her new friend, Tracy, want to continue that effort for other children.

Tanner's Tea is Sunday, May 18, from 2-4 p.m. at Thanksgiving! Lutheran Church, 3702 Hwy 370 Plaza, Bellevue.

Reservations are required and a free-will donation will be taken to benefit CureSearch. For reservations, e-mail TannersTea@hotmail.com.

To sign up for the upcoming Omaha Milestones Walk go to CureSearch.org.

CureSearch Children's Oncology Group is one of the only organizations in the world dedicated to children's cancer research and treatment.

Lusk said cooperative research has improved survival rates from less than 10 percent to more than 77 percent overall since the 1950s.

She said doctors involved with the Children's Oncology Group and CureSearch have decreased childhood cancer mortality by 25 percent.

The group's Web site said over the last 10 years, their researchers have also helped improve survival rates of certain types of leukemia to more than 80 percent.

The Omaha area walk is Saturday, June 7, 8-10 a.m. at Village Pointe shopping center, 168th and West Dodge Road. KETV NewsWatch 7's Brandi Petersen will help host the event.

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