The community is invited to the Senoia Rotary Club meeting scheduled for Monday, Sept. 12, at 6:30 p.m. at Senoia Coffee and Café, 1 Main Street in Senoia.
The speaker is Deidre Bembry, founder of Keris Kares. Any firefighters who attend will have a free dinner as the club celebrates Firefighters Night at Rotary.
On Nov. 22, 2013, four-year-old Keris Bembry was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Keris complained of headaches for a couple of weeks prior and then developed progressive imbalance. After being misdiagnosed a few times, her parents followed their gut and took Keris to Scottish Rite in Atlanta. An MRI revealed that Keris had developed Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), which makes up 10-15 percent of all brain tumors in children, with about 100-150 new diagnoses per year in the United States and about 300 per year in all of North America and Europe.
Immediately after receiving the diagnosis, there was an outpouring of love, prayers and financial support from family, friends and total strangers. Although it initially was a very dark time for the family, the support of others helped take the load off. Keris Kares was founded to provide that same hope, love and support to families that find themselves in similar situations due to a childhood cancer diagnosis.
