In the Loop: ‘Tutu Tuesday’ Helps Young Cancer Patient’s Treatments

This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.
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A lot has been taken from 3-year-old Hannah Keehr during the 14 months she's undergone treatment for stage IV neuroblastoma: her hair, her high-frequency hearing, and her ability – at least for the time being – to have a normal childhood. But there's one thing Hannah hasn't let go of: her, we'll say, leadership skills. "She hasn't really lost her ability to be bossy," her mom, Christa Keehr, tells us.

That trait came in especially handy one recent Tuesday at Mayo Clinic's Proton Beam Facility in Rochester. That day, Randy Mc Keeman, a child life specialist, and Ben Tempel, one of Hannah's nurses, showed up in the waiting room wearing tutus. (Really.) Mc Keeman explains, "I'd seen a YouTube video about another children's hospital that has 'Tutu Tuesdays,' so I thought I'd test the water to see if that would be something that would work here at Mayo, too." He adds that he just so happened to have "a bag of donated tutus" handy. (We should all be so lucky.) Read the rest of Hannah's story.