Kaitlyn was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 8 years old. Hearing she had cancer was so devastating to hear. As parents we were so scared for her and what the future held. How do you explain to an 8 year old about cancer and the medications that she would have to take to rid it from her body and what those medications would have to do? 

No matter how it was explained to her, she wouldn’t really know until she was going through it. Kaitlyn had such a positive attitude throughout her treatment that she always amazed us. Yes she had some pretty bad days but she would just move on after that bad day passed. She even once told me “you know Mom if I never got cancer I would have never  been in a calendar”. That was the positivity that she had. 

After 2 years of chemo and 5 years of holding our breath at every clinic appointment she was cancer free. And now 7 years post treatment, Kaitlyn has graduated high school and will be starting college in the fall. She wants to be a child life specialist as they all had such a deep impact on her time in the hospital and at the clinic. We are so grateful that she is healthy and thank everyone who had a part in getting her there physically as well as supporting her emotionally.

-Melissa Lewis, mother