Seeking Assistance for Baby Izak

Izak Belisle

For Michelle Rudon, a single mother of two, helping children living with cancer who are from poverty stricken families has become her calling. And so she has branched out to create her own organization in honor of Cleyon. A Thousand Smiles for Cleyon has since garnered the support of several professionals both locally and internationally and will focus on helping cancer kids. One new case for whom Rudon is now seeking assistance is Izak Belisle. Baby Izak is only five months old, and is currently in Guatemala receiving medical treatment. According to Rudon, the organization is also trying to get Izak into Saint Jude’s.

Michelle Rudon, A Thousand Smiles for Cleyon

Michelle Rudon

“We have a baby that’s five months old; he is adorable; his name is Izak Alexander Belisle. This baby has two stages of extremely aggressive cancer and unfortunately same situation: single mother, lack of finances, and we also would like to ask that the same support the same help, the same love is shown to Cleyon…is what I personally think brought about this miracle. I am asking that everybody extends this to this baby because he is also in great need. He is in Guatemala right now undergoing chemo, but same situation as Cleyon; he also will need a surgery and he will need to be flown out to get this surgery.  Cleyon’s mom and I became very great friends through this ordeal and I can’t explain what it is that drew me to this child—maybe because it is a single mother too, I saw her trouble—but what I realized very quickly is that one, there is not the medical backup for kids with cancer in Belize. Cancer is an extremely dangerous and an extremely costly disease; the chemo is very expensive. And imagine being a mother, you are already struggling, you don’t have money and your child gets cancer, what do you do? He can’t get treated in Belize, what do you do? You don’t have the money to take him where he can get the treatment, what do you do? And this is where a thousand smiles for Cleyon steps in because what our aim is, is to work specifically with kids who have cancer. We are trying to get a network set up where we can get them flown out to a hospital that has already maybe pre-approved them. We have doctors that will step in and guide us along the way. So it is a solid group of individuals who will be kicking some butts in 2015 and hopefully make the lives of mothers and kids with cancer much, much easier than it is right now. The brainchild of a friend of mine, Barbara Lewis, she is an Avon representative and she came up with the idea and I loved it right away. Women love lipsticks; I mean, we’ll be buying ten lipsticks a week, different colors. And she came up with the idea of getting lipsticks and every one instead of making just a contribution to a good cause, you will be also getting a beautiful lipstick at the same time. And it also works hand in hand with the name, A Thousand Smiles for Cleyon because you have on a pretty lipstick you will be smiling all day. So you will be getting something back for your contribution; you are not just giving money.”

For persons wanting to assist baby Izak, deposits can be made to his mother, Iris Belisle’s Atlantic Bank account number, 210830216. The University of Belize will also be hosting variety show at the Ramada Belize City Princess on Sunday to raise funds for the cause.