Our goal is to prevent any child, any family member, and any friend from experiencing the pain and heartbreak we have endured.
Steve's Story
Steven was a fun, silly, always-moving, athletic kid. In August of 2004, however, he wasn’t feeling quite himself. He was nauseous, tired and moody. One morning, we received a surprise call to pick him up at baseball camp after he fell ill on the field. Alarm grew when his pediatrician immediately sent us to the Valerie Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital. That day forever changed our lives.
Steve was soon diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia to be treated with a bone marrow transplant. Our entire family had our bone marrow tested and we were so happy when Steve’s little sister, Becky, turned out to be a perfect match. On August 31st, Steve entered Hackensack University Medical Center to start chemotherapy and get ready for his transplant. On September 10th, the transplant was completed and we prayed and prayed for our miracle.
Initial results were good; Steve entered remission and returned home to a glorious welcome by his family and friends in Mendham, NJ. Things seemed great except for a nagging cough he was having trouble shaking. Soon, however, this cough led to an infection in his lungs that resulted in Steve needing to be put on a ventilator and into a medically-induced coma. He fought hard and came off that ventilator about a month later. That was another glorious moment for our family.
Steve began rigorous physical therapy and started regaining his strength but unfortunately, at the same time, his blood counts began heading in the wrong direction and we soon received more devastating news - Steve had relapsed. This was followed by months of trips back and forth to Hackensack and the PICU, multiple spinal taps, another stem cell transplant, a bout with sepsis and many nights when our family was separated. Every member of our family lived on edge and in a constant state of stress. Cancer does not just affect the patient, it affects the entire family.
On April 11th, 2005, just 8 months after his diagnosis, Steve succumbed to his illness. His passing was a shock to all of us; he seemed to be doing so well and was always in the best of spirits. Just the day before we were all there with him, laughing and watching videos that his classmates had sent him. Things went downhill over night and AML took him from us far too soon.
Honoring Steve's Spirit
We, Mike and Ellen, along with our children, Matt, Patch and Becky, have launched Team Steve: The Steven Crowe Legacy Fund in partnership with CureSearch for Children's Cancer. We will work to raise meaningful funds for childhood cancer research to honor our son, brother, nephew, cousin and to keep his fighting spirit alive. We aspire to ensure that, one day, families won't need to go through what we went through. We believe in CureSearch's work and have worked with them to raise funds before. We know teaming up with CureSearch will allow us the best opportunity to reach our ambitious goals.
We are so thankful for our families, friends, and communities that have helped us in keeping Steve’s spirit alive and hope that you will once again join us in his honor.
"Our family has chosen to partner with CureSearch because of their focus on driving targeted and innovative research to end childhood cancer. Supporting high potential pediatric cancer research is needed today, as much as it ever has been."
- Mike Crowe, Steve's Dad
The Steven Crowe Legacy Fund is working to end childhood cancer
Funds raised by Team Steve will support CureSearch 2023-2025 Young Investigator, Elvin Wagenblast, PHD, at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai.
"My vision is to understand the earliest steps of how and why childhood leukemia initiates and to use this knowledge to innovate therapeutic intervention focused on targeting the preleukemic and leukemic phase.”
- Elvin Wagenblast, PhD
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