Video to Justin Bieber Features Kirkwood

A 13-year-old cancer survivor is trying to get Justin Bieber to come to St. Louis.

When Lauren Lee was battling cancer at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, a visit from Justin Bieber would have done wonders to lift her spirits. "It would have just made it all better," the 13 year old from Maryville, IL, said. Now Lee is on a campaign to make the dream a reality for her peers at the medical center. Lee made a YouTube video asking Justin Bieber to visit SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in October. The teen is the perfect spokesperson for the cause. She's a huge fan of Bieber and of her treatment at the medical center. In 2010, Lee was diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin lymphoma after an x-ray revealed a mass in her chest.  "I was so scared. At first I had no idea what it was," Lee said. "I was just…

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Whiz Kid

Whiz Kid: Kirkwood Teen Inspires Marikle Foundation

Marik Lingo fought leukemia and received the miracle of a new heart. Today she's behind a foundation that raises thousands of dollars to help the families of other sick kids.

Today Marik Lingo is a healthy, active eighth grader helping to raise money for the families of sick children. But just a few years ago she was in a fight for her own life. The Kirkwood teen was just 7 years old when her appendix ruptured a few days after Christmas. An emergency for anyone, but for Marik, now 13, it meant the start of many months spent in and out of the hospital. That’s because doctors discovered Marik had leukemia. Once Marik started chemotherapy, her parents, Mark and Carrie Lingo, thought she would soon be getting well again. But after her final round of chemotherapy, doctors found that her heart was in jeopardy. “That was her last round – we (thought we) were done,” Carrie Lingo remembered. “The type of chemotherapy …

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