Hobby urges support for CHOA amid her daughter’s recovery

Atlanta broadcaster Jenn

Hobby’s precious baby Reese is done with her first round of chemo and is home for the moment. Jenn and her husband are grateful for all the love and support they have received since revealing Reese’s diagnosis and urge people to support Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Her open letter to the community was posted to the Star 94.1 site.

“As Grant and I have wrestled with the reality of Reese’s cancer diagnosis, we’ve also been comforted by the incredible staff at the Aflac Cancer Center located at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Egleston and Scottish Rite),” Hobby wrote. “In our family’s darkest hour, this team of doctors, nurses, and family specialists gave us hope that our 11-month-old daughter will beat cancer. Atlanta is so very fortunate to have some of the best pediatric doctors in the world dedicated to all better; dedicated to a world in which children don’t have cancer.”

Hobby, who is married to longtime Cobb County educator Grant Rivera, shared Reese’s diagnosis earlier this month and has been keeping supporters updated.

“To honor Reese and all the children who are enduring this brave fight, we invite you to donate to the Aflac Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta,” Hobby wrote.

“Your donation provides a cure and, equally as important, it gives children and families hope. I know Reese will never remember the months of hospitalizations, chemotherapy, and more generally, the toll cancer takes on a family. However, I do believe you and the Star 94.1 family can use her story of survival to put more good in the world. As her mom, I want her to know that she inspired our entire city to beat pediatric cancer.”

The link to donate is giving.choa.org/cancer.

Oprah alert

Oprah Winfrey is back in Atlanta for the HBO film adaptation of Rebecca

Skloot’s riveting and phenomenally popular nonfiction work “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Winfrey will portray Henrietta’s daughter Deborah Lacks.

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 yet her cells live on and it’s not hyperbolic to say they probably have impacted nearly every human being on the planet.

“She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells — taken without her knowledge in 1951 — became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more,” Skloot notes on her author site, rebeccaskloot.com.

Actress Rose Byrne will portray Skloot.

A source spotted Winfrey shopping at the Buckhead Whole Foods earlier this week.

Jenn Hobby shared this photo of her baby Reese after the 11-month-old completed her first round of chemotherapy at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.