ST. CLOUD -- A local girl battling a rare and aggressive cancer was all smiles at the Paramount Center for the Arts on Sunday.

The family and friends of 9-year-old Lucy Ann Koehn of Sartell gathered for a unicorn themed benefit concert to raise money for her treatments.

Deuces Wild Dueling Pianos, Paul “Stretch” Diethelm, Michael Shynes, and James Calacsan all performed at the sold-out show. Family friend Jacquie Willis says it’s really the musicians who are to thank for everything coming together.

We were approached by Ted Manderfeld and Tony Jarousek about hosting a benefit concert in honor of Lucy Ann which we were thrilled to accept, and they have taken that and absolutely ran with the planning and got the musicians set up.

Since being diagnosed in October, Lucy has undergone five surgeries, four rounds of chemotherapy, five weeks of radiation, and countless tests and scans.

Her mom, Nikki Koehn, says the creation of "#unicornsquad Love for Lucy" was their way of turning the negative news into a positive.

Lucy’s cancer is called Malignant Myoepithelioma High-Grade Soft Tissue Sarcoma Carcinoma so it’s a big thing and it’s incredibly rare - under 100 cases worldwide, 20 or less cases being children. So when she got diagnosed with it I joked with her, we were kind of like oh, of course, you get the unicorn of cancers. That was kind of where we ran with it.

The concert raised over $38,000 that will go to Lucy's medical expenses including regular scans over the next five years.

 

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