Posted Tuesday, April 15 --- 6:00pm

More than a dozen student organizations at U-W Whitewater have teamed up to help a two-year-old girl fight a common type of cancer in children.

UW-Whitewater student Carolyn Schweitzer is pushing strangers to help

"I'm really pushing this last week, too, to get as many donations... prizes," Schweitzer says.

Her push comes out of love for a 2-year-old little girl named Hailey Meltz.

Hailey suffers from a condition called pediatric low grade astrocytoma.

It's estimated more than 20-thousand children suffer from the type of brain tumor, with another thousand diagnosed with PLGA every year.

"Brain tumors are the number one cancer killer of children and number two overall, behind accidents, says Brian Meltz, Hailey's father.

Hailey's parents, Shannon and Brian Meltz regularly make the trip to American Family Children's Hospital for chemotherapy and an MRI every 20 weeks.

"You count for ten fingers, ten toes and you never dream that something like this is going to happen to them," says Shannon.

An MRI will tell the Meltz's whether the tumor behind Hailey's eyes is growing.

The tumor prevents Hailey from gaining signficiant weight.

The Meltzes say the condition is under-researched.

There is no cure, but the family has hope for Hailey.

"We're trying to raise money to privately fund research to advance this process, speed it up rapidly so in the next, say five years, we can have better treatments on the market that can help save our daughter and the thousands of kids and families out there like her," Brian says.

Meanwhile, Hailey's cousin is organizing a casino night fundraiser, gambling on the hope of winning the fight.

"I feel like this is finally like I know why I'm here, I found my passion... to bring hope to a little girl ... just to bring hope to all of these other children that are suffering from this, is a feeling I can't even explain truthfully, says Schwietzer.

This week... UW Whitewater is hosting two events to raise money for Hailey's cause.

A run-walk is on Thursday... then a casino night is on Saturday on campus.

INFORMATION:
The run-walk:
Registration 11:30 am
$10

The casino night:
6-8:15 pm Casino Night at the Hamilton Center
9-10 pm Comedian Al Goodwin
Tickets $25 by 4/18
$35 at the door