Join me in annual hair-razing cancer benefit

Ashley Conley spent too much of her third year on Earth vomiting.

Enduring blood transfusions that lasted for hours.

Riding in the family van that wore two deep grooves into the roads that connect her home in Naperville with the hospital in Oak Lawn, just so she and her frightened parents could fight through painful 10- to 12-hour marathons at Advocate Hope Children's Hospital.

All because of a little thing called acute lymphoblastic leukemia -- better known as ALL.

Ashley had poison pumped into her body under the guise of "chemotherapy."

She lost her hair.

Her body's natural growth slowed to a crawl, which helps explain why she's at least 15 pounds lighter and a full head shorter than her twin brother, Connor.

And speaking of crawling, Ashley is now 3½ years old, but it wasn't until last month that she started to walk.

That's the condensed tale of what cancer has done to Ashley.

But that's not nearly as cool as the story about what Ashley, now giddily equipped with a full head of hair and an infectious smile, has done to cancer.

Yes, she still needs to have a chemo tablet ground up and mixed into her pre-bedtime apple sauce.

Yes, she still must ingest other medicines and steroids as part of her daily regimen.

But by the summer of 2009, less than three years after being diagnosed with ALL, Ashley ought to be pronounced cured of cancer.

Cured.

Not just cancer-free.

Cured.

As those familiar with cancer's carnage over the years surely know, ALL used to be almost always fatal in children.

But now, ALL is curable at a rate that's slightly better than Michael Jordan's career free-throw percentage: roughly 85 percent.

Scientists and researchers have done an amazing job figuring out ways to whip ALL and other childhood cancers.

But really, until beating cancer becomes more like a Jordan dunk than a Jordan free throw, we shouldn't be satisfied.

That's why, in honor of courageous Ashley Conley and her family, I'm shaving my head at the Hyatt Regency Woodfield in Schaumburg today.

The event is part of the flourishing St. Baldrick's charity that raises millions of dollars each year to crush children's cancer.

There'll be a bunch of us at Schaumburg today losing our hair, toasting our health and rooting for others' to return to normal.

If it's tough to get to Golf Road today, there are 71 other events scheduled in the Chicago area.

If it's tough to get to Illinois, there are events in almost every state in America -- not to mention countries as far away as Australia.

If it sounds like fun to support St. Baldrick's another way, then type in www.stbaldricks.org and search for the "Find a Participant" link.

Tap in my name or pick another shavee's name at random. Throw us a dollar or two.

Click.

Credit card.

Cure.

Now THOSE are the big Cs.