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Beaded Cancer Bracelets

Lance Armstrong isn't the only Texan selling bracelets for a good cause.

Six-year-old Baylie Owen has turned her Houston home into a jewelry-making factory, producing hundreds of bright, beaded bracelets to raise research money for a rare brain abnormality called Chiari malformation.

The curly haired kindergartner Thursday came to University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, where she has been getting treatment for the disorder for the last two years. This time, she had a $1,000 check in hand -- proceeds from the bracelets she sells on a Web site at $3 a pop.

"It's to help my friends get their heads better," explained Baylie, who has raised more than $3,000 for U. of C.'s research into Chiari, which causes the base of the brain to protrude below the skull and crowd into the spinal canal.

Some people are born with the condition but don't experience any symptoms. Others, like Baylie, live with crippling headaches, vomiting and other problems. Baylie already has undergone four surgeries to relieve pressure on her brain.

Buyers in Australia, Siberia

Baylie's quest to raise cash for research into her illness started last year, when she sold drawings for 10 cents apiece. She gave that $27 to her surgeon, Dr. David Frim, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at U. of C.

"He got choked up," recalled Baylie's mom, Tressie Owen. "Baylie told him, 'Don't be sad. I'll bring you more money.' "

True to her word, Baylie and her mom started stringing together bracelets made of blue beads, in honor of Baylie's middle name, Belewe. Some of the beads spell words, such as "hope," "wish," and "Chiari." They sell the jewelry on the Web site www.caringbridge .org/tx/baylieo.

"I never thought it would get this big," Owen said. "We've had orders from Australia and Siberia. As long as people want them, we'll keep making them."

Research dollars can be tough to come by for uncommon disorders like Chiari.

"A lot of money goes into cancer, trauma, Alzheimer's," Frim said, after Baylie gave him a high-five and handed him her latest payment. "But there are many diseases that don't affect a lot of people, yet can still be very problematic. This is one of them.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to figure it out," he said, "if Baylie keeps bringing us her checks."

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