For over a decade, Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott, Jr. has raised awareness in the fight against childhood cancer by raising money and highlighting members of the community who are affected by a cancer diagnosis. This year, the mayor has chosen to focus on a family that he knows very well to help support an adult that is dealing with a second cancer diagnosis.
Allie Gleason is a mother to 2 children and wife to Hammond Fire Fighter, Craig Gleason. Allie attended Morton High School where she met Craig. Craig has been an employee of the city of Hammond since he was 15 years old and Craig’s father Gary was the head of the Public Works Department for nearly twenty years.
Allie worked for Bank Calumet Hessville and downtown branches. She also worked at the Hammond YMCA. Allie and Craig have two children. Their daughter is a senior in high school and their son who is special needs was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 3 years old and a rare genetic defect at 12.
In 2019 at the age of 39, Allie had a lumpectomy that came back positive for a rare form of breast cancer. They traveled to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she had surgery, reconstruction, and followed up afterwards yearly for monitoring of the cancer site. At her 5-year check-up in December last year, her doctors informed her that her cancer had returned. She started intense chemotherapy in January. Once she finishes this round of chemo, she will need more scans, radiation treatment, and another surgery.
Life has not been easy for the Gleason Family dealing with a second cancer diagnosis. They are constantly attending appointments, going through treatment, raising two children, working, and still try to find time to rest and spend time with each other.
Mayor McDermott’s goal is to raise $10,000 dollars for the Gleason family to help alleviate the cost of hospital bills and any other financial struggles the family is currently enduring. If you are willing and able to we ask that you donate to the GoFundMe page that the City of Hammond has set up. The link is https://gofund.me/accfe845. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to Allie and her family.
The City of Hammond will live steam Mayor Tom shaving his head on Friday April 12th at 3:00 p.m. on the city’s Facebook page (“Go Hammond”) and other social media platforms. Allie will be the mayor’s barber for the day! Mayor McDermott and the City of Hammond encourage all members of our community and throughout Northwest Indiana to join him to help show support for Allie and for the ongoing battle to find a cure to all forms of cancer.