Some of you may have already heard of Charley Bauer from Coach Diebler's comments last week. Even before Charley was fighting cancer, she had dedicated herself to fighting for others as a nursing student set to graduate from OSU next year. I would like to rally friends here at 11w to the fight and I'll donate $10 for every helmet sticker or comment in support of Leukemia research. I would like to make a donation of at least $1100 for by noon tomorrow for her memorial in Toledo. My employer will match my donation so ideally this will be $2200. I will make my donation "on behalf of 12th warrior Buckeyes far and wide, may we all learn to fight as hard as Charley." I would be honored if others from 11w would join me with a donation to support Leukemia research, honor Charley, and let her family hear our Buckeye battle cry.
Charley Bauer passed away last week after a nine-month battle with AML, a particularly aggressive form of Leukemia. She took on Chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and eventually was able to ‘ring the bell’ to celebrate beating the cancer in late December. Tragically, complications from the transplant procedure proved too much, stealing her away from the world she so much wanted to help.
In the trenches of her battle with cancer, she was a leader bringing hope and purpose to other cancer patients. She led other patients to make custom shoes for Coach Diebler and the team to wear vs. Iowa. She found ways to encourage, entertain or just distract other patients to keep them fully focused on positive outcomes.
As doctors struggled to fight off complications, her last words were, ‘I can do hard things’. I think her words meant she still had faith she could make it through that last challenge, but also showed she had the courage to do the hardest thing, to say goodbye.
I hope you’ll take inspiration from her story and that we all fight just as hard as she did, with that goal-line-stand attitude of, ‘give me an inch, I’ll defend it’. Her family asked that those who attend the memorial wear our beloved scarlet and grey. Here's Charley's full obituary.
Again, each helmet sticker or comment here will raise $20 for Leukemia research, which we should think of like NIL for kicking cancer's ass. Importantly, I want her family to know that Buckeye nation stands with them in this difficult time.
How firm thy friendship, OHIO
