Click here for Greater Long Island newsletters. Click here to download the iPhone app.
A youth softball standout from Bethpage is back at home after spending weeks in the hospital receiving treatment for leukemia, her family reported.
Thirteen-year-old Hailey Giebel has been in and out of the hospital since her cancer diagnosis in early January. Hailey, a star pitcher on her school and the New York Lady Nightmares Club under 14 softball teams, is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
But family and friends are now hopeful she has turned the corner toward recovery.
“Haileyluja!!” wrote family friend Michele Devine, in an update on the GoFundMe page she established in January for the Giebel family. “After three long weeks in the hospital, Hailey is finally home!
“She was cared for by the best of the best, and we are beyond grateful for the incredible team who helped her heal, she added.
Huge community support
News of Hailey’s illness had shaken the Bethpage community, where she is an eighth-grader at JFK Middle School. Given her reputation as a fierce competitor, those closest to her are not surprised how stoic and determined she has been in her fight against cancer.
“She still has a ways to go but the way she is handling everything she will be back doing the things she loves before we know it,” Devine said, in an earlier update on the GoFundMe page for the Giebels.
Created to help the family with medical expenses, meals and other associated costs, the GoFundMe effort — as of 6 p.m. on Tuesday — has raised more than $91,000 from over 1,100 donations. Within the initial 24 hours of the fundraiser, established on Jan. 15, more than $50,000 in donations poured in.
Hailey’s mom Randi, who grew up in Bethpage, and dad Dan have needed to take time off work to be with her as she undergoes treatment. Her younger sister Aubrey is a student at Charles Campagne Elementary School.
Community rallies to help Massapequa newlywed fighting breast cancer
A hashtag call out dedicated to Hailey’s fight was established shortly after her diagnosis: #RALLYFORHAILEY
Top photos: GoFundMe
