“I felt isolated from my friends. They viewed me as being fragile, but I was the same person as before. This shattered me. No matter what I did, I was always viewed as the cancer girl.”
‘Am I going to die?’ I woke to strands of hair on my pillow. My heart sunk. ‘I’m going to be bald.’ I lost my hair a week before prom.’: Teenager shares cancer journey, ‘It opened my eyes’
‘There’s a mass behind her nose.’ Her runny nose became blood-tinged. She could barely hold her head up. I knew it was bad.’: Mom details daughter’s cancer journey, ‘Never give up hope’
“They looked up her nose. Something was there. I had a knot in my stomach before he even spoke. My mind flashed back to a Google search I had done that fit her symptoms. Cancer.”
‘I don’t want to die.’ Tears ran down his face as he held his little brother’s hand. I want to take away his pain.’: Mom says 7-year-old son with rare cancer is ‘a force to be reckoned with’
“He started wearing his winter coat throughout the day and complained he was cold. I noticed he had some swelling on his privates. In my gut, I had a bad feeling something just wasn’t right.”
‘He had red dots all over his body. ‘He needs to be seen in the ER right away.’ No one would look at us. I was in shock.’: Mom of 9-month-old with Acute Myeloid Leukemia says ‘We’ve been given a second chance’
“You know it isn’t good when the doctor sits down at eye level with you. Josh and I took turns holding Holden and crying. We could feel how they all pitied us. We prepared to fight.”
‘You called hematology?!’ I decided to Google ‘red spots on a baby’s skin.’ My body went limp.’: After son is diagnosed with leukemia, Mom urges caution, ‘All the warning signs were there’
“I sat on the couch, clutching Lukas. I noticed strange marks on his body. They were not there the night before. At that moment, I knew my baby’s fate. I was just trying to stall the inevitable.”
‘That’s not normal.’ I took her to the ER. ‘Mommy, I want my fingers and toes to get all wrinkley.’: Mom thankful for those who helped ‘walking miracle’ daughter beat cancer
“‘She was feeling better, but there was light vomit here and there. Then, on the afternoon of Saturday, March 24th we were at a party and I noticed her right eye moving inward, Slow down, I’m dizzy,’ she said.”
‘The doctor said, ‘It’s just a matter of time.’ She started reaching for things in the air. I thought it was the end.’: Mom of five-time leukemia warrior says ‘Ali’s light has remained a constant through it all’
“Holding down my screaming daughter for the third time that night felt like torture. Little did I know, that night was just the beginning. She kept looking at me confused, wondering why I was allowing someone to do this to her.”
‘He had a really rough go. Joe is our youngest child. Neuroblastoma is a really crappy cancer to have.’: Mom says her son is ‘doing beautifully’ after battling stage 4 neuroblastoma
“‘I’m going to play soccer and baseball in the fall,’ little Joe said, now in post-treatment. I still believed childhood cancer was rare. I even believed the kids who did get cancer would be fine, assuming they were treated at the best hospitals and didn’t have any unusual complications. I didn’t believe kids like mine could get cancer. It wasn’t until I was officially a ‘cancer mom,’ that I would understand.”
‘Hey Dad, I haven’t been feeling too well. Could you take me to the doctor? I think I might have a sinus infection.’: Daughter teaches dad important lesson on the importance of ‘being brave’
“‘Sure baby, I’ll pick you up after school.’ My daughter’s sinus infection was anything but.”
‘Little did I know this one wedding, and this one bride, would change my life forever.’: Photographer captures 19-year-old bride’s impromptu wedding after she was told ‘she wouldn’t make it through the night’
“They had to move her wedding day to that very day at 5:00 p.m. I usually can withstand any sort of stress on the job. But the emotional roller coaster of this 1-hour celebration of life has got to be by far the toughest wedding I’ve ever had the honor of documenting.”
