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‘Do it for Doobee’: Greenport girl is inspiration for softball tournament to raise money for Crohn’s Disease research

Doobee Hansen receives iron transfusions after becoming extremely anemic last year. Courtesy photo

For the third year in a row, the North Fork will come together this weekend to show a little girl with Crohn’s Disease that she is not alone.

Eleven-year-old Drew “Doobee” Hansen has been struggling with the chronic gastrointestinal disorder almost her entire life. Along the way, she has battled with near-daily pain, severe anemia, weight loss and additional complications from her medications, including a build-up of spinal fluid in her brain.

Though Doobee has finally found a treatment plan that can help manage some of the symptoms of her disorder, Crohn’s Disease currently has no known cure, which means that she will likely be battling with the disorder for the rest of her life.

That’s why three years ago, her parents decided to organize a softball tournament to raise money for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, a not-for-profit organization that funds cutting-edge studies to find Crohn’s Disease’s cure.

“We fundraise because it’s all we can really do to help her right now,” said Martha Hansen, Doobee’s mother.

Horseback riding "gave [Doobee] an identity," her mother said. “She became the little girl who rode horses, as opposed to the little girl who's sick all the time." Courtesy photo.
Horseback riding “gave [Doobee] an identity,” her mother said. “She became the little girl who rode horses, as opposed to the little girl who’s sick all the time.” Courtesy photo.
Doobee’s battle with Crohn’s disease began when she was only three and a half years old. After two colonoscopies, two endoscopies, two trips to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and “countless” blood draws and procedures, Doobee was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease a year later.

In the years that have followed, Doobee has been through dozens of medications – some of them dangerous – to find a treatment plan that works for her.

It has taken a long time to get there. Treatment options kept failing. She had a severe allergic reaction to one medication that led to a hospitalization. When she was seven, a surgeon attempted abdominal surgery to remove part of her disease-ravaged intestine, but found that the diseased portion of her intestine was too long to remove from a patient at such a young age.

When Doobee’s insurance company denied a medication she needs to manage her symptoms, she was forced to take steroids for several months while her parents fought through a lengthy appeal process. The steroids caused a build-up of spinal fluid in her brain, which ultimately required a neurosurgical procedure and a three-week long hospital stay.

“They were the worst three weeks ever,” Hansen said.

Doobee and her mother, Martha, at an appointment for Doobee's weekly injections. Courtesy photo
Doobee and her mother, Martha, at an appointment for Doobee’s weekly injections. Courtesy photo

Today, Doobee is doing relatively well. “She has ups and downs,” said Hansen, “but she’s doing better.” Her symptoms are mostly kept under control through weekly injections of Humira, the medication her insurance company originally denied, and Methotrexate.

But when Doobee catches a cold or a virus at school, she has to stop her medications, and then her Crohn’s symptoms come raging back.

“As she gets older and she really understands what’s going on, she always says to me, ‘I just want to be normal. I just want to be normal.’” Hansen paused. “It definitely gets her down sometimes.”

Doobee copes with the difficulty of her disorder through her passions for dance and horseback riding. She has been taking dance classes at Inspire Dance Centre in Southold for the past three years, and she has also been riding horses since she was six years old.

“It became her therapy,” Hansen said. “She became the little girl who rode horses, as opposed to the little girl who’s sick all the time. It gave her an identity.”

Doobee’s parents, meanwhile, cope with the helplessness of this disorder by raising money toward research for a cure.

Five years ago, Martha and Johne Hansen began hosting themed dance parties at the Sound View Inn to raise money for Crohn’s research. They got involved with the CCFA, which is on the forefront of Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis research, and donate all their proceeds to the organization.

Their most successful fundraisers, however, have been the softball tournaments they’ve organized over the past three years.

Johne Hansen, Doobee’s father, has been playing softball his entire life. He has played in several local leagues over the years, including Greenport, Riverhead and Hampton Bays.

Since 2013, he and family friend Andres Puerta have organized softball tournaments that have drawn about a dozen teams from all across Long Island every year.

“The support was unreal,” said Puerta. “Greenport’s a really small town, but people really came out. So many businesses were sponsors to support Doobee.”

The cost of the tournament is $500 per team and $100 per sponsor. It is free for the public to attend. All proceeds go to CCFA.

This year’s three-day tournament will also feature food, drinks, music and a 50/50 raffle. It will be held September 30 to October 2 at the Greenport Polo Grounds Softball Field.

“Johne and I are very passionate about fundraising for the CCFA,” Hansen said. “It is our hope that if we continue to fundraise with the CCFA that someday soon a cure will be found for this disease.”

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Katie Blasl
Katie, winner of the 2016 James Murphy Cub Reporter of the Year award from the L.I. Press Club, is a reporter, editor and web developer for the LOCAL news websites. A Riverhead native, she is a 2014 graduate of Stony Brook University. Email Katie