![]() ![]() We were so many years out of it, and from that early diagnosis where you feel alone and everything feels very dark, now you're standing on a bridge with all these amazing hearts and all these good people who have been through it in some way or knew somebody who was going through it or just wanted to come and make sure nobody else went through it, so you're not alone in any sense of the word.”Įsten's next Light the Night event takes place in Nashville on Oct. That was the first thing that felt so dramatically like a milestone. I was blown away," he recalled. "Everything else about Addie's recovery had been so gradual and slow and there was no real milestone, per say. I'll never forget walking on a bridge and everyone holding up these blue lights. “Immediately, we were made to feel part of the family, but the real bonding and the thing that cemented our commitment and our ties to the group had to be that first Light the Night Walk. We knew that many had come before us and not put their head in the sand, but dug in and came alongside everyone else and started to help.”Ī post shared by Charles Esten involvement with LLS began when Addie was named a Girl of the Year, continued with hosting events and live auctions during his Whose Line Is It Anyway? days, and blossomed into working with the Middle Tennessee chapter of LLS after his family - which also includes 21-year-old daughter Taylor and 19-year-old son Chase - moved to the area for Nashville, and his being named an Honorary National Spokesperson for the organization. "They were that reason that when our diagnosis was given, Addie's rate of survival was at 85 percent as opposed to, when I was a kid, it was a virtual death sentence. "Part of your instinct is to sort of lower your head and walk away from the scene of the crime, but that doesn't feel right and it isn’t right, because the reason you get to walk away is because of the people who came before, the people that did the research, the people that gave and raised money so that all those trials could happen," he continued. never really felt like, 'We're good now!'" I think they were being super conservative with their estimate, but there's no finish line. “They tell you 10 years - that’s the number we were given before you were really able to breathe. “It was her battle, but we were alongside and obviously part of it every single second,” Esten says of Addie’s days in treatment, which involved two years of chemo. When Esten and I chatted last month, just days before he was set to begin filming season six of Nashville, it was evident that same hope is what drives him in his philanthropic work. Like Esten, I participate in events with LLS, though I work with their Team in Training arm, because I remember all too clearly what the pain, both mentally and physically, felt like while going through chemotherapy and radiation, and I hope that one day no other child or young adult has to suffer through blood cancer. Full disclosure: I am a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor, though I was 25 years older than Addie when I was diagnosed. The walking he's referring to is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Light the Night events. ![]() EXCLUSIVE: 'Nashville' Star Charles Esten on the Rayna Cliffhanger: 'Hang on Tight' ![]()
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