Layla Grace Children's Cancer Research Foundation

This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

The holidays will never be same after this year. We rang in the New Year with our daughter, Layla Jane Williford’s first brain surgery on New Year’s Day. A temporary drain was installed to relieve built-up pressure and to monitor it for an entire week in the PICU at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC. And so began our year long journey with a series of events that eventually led to a stage IV diagnosis of AT/RT brain cancer in the fourth ventricle and all of the painful surgeries and treatments thereafter.

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This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

My daughter, Alexandria, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina, in January of 2008 and started chemotherapy a few days later. I think when your child is diagnosed with a serious illness, it changes your family, and it changes who you are. I am no longer the same person I was in January 2008. I am different, not better or worse, but just different. Read More…

This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

Ashton was born April 23rd of this year. A tumor was found in his stomach within hours of his birth. A few days later, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Over the last seven months, he received four cycles of chemotherapy and four transfusions. Now, he is now getting follow up care at home and routine scans every three months. Although, he still has 10% of his tumor, and I worry every single minute of every single day that it is regrowing, we provide Ashton with the therapy of love, kisses, and as normal a life at home as possible.

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This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

It is very strange to be in the hospital on a holiday. Everyone extra is off work, so the hospital halls that were so full of life the day before, are empty and too quiet. We are blessed that our sweet 11-year-old son, Logan, won’t be in the hospital for Christmas, but on the Fourth of July, he was there waiting for his eighth surgery and had another vacuum assisted closure (VAC).

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This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

The holidays have more meaning for us than they ever have before. Bryson was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March of last year, so we have spent an Easter in the hospital. To still celebrate, my husband, Tim, and I decorated the windows and the room. Several organizations brought all sorts of goodies for the kids, and The Snowdrop Foundation put on an Easter egg hunt. We count ourselves as blessed to be sharing this special time with him. We truly know the meaning of living everyday as a gift.

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This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

Our 10-month-old son, Holden Thomas Underwood, has acute lymphoblastic leukemia with MLL gene rearrangement. This will be his first Christmas, and our first time having a child with cancer over the holidays. We made it through Thanksgiving with cancer and found much to be thankful for, despite the situation. Read More…

This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

Our cancer journey began May 21 when Jackson was diagnosed with Hemangiopericytoma, so this holiday season is our first spent as a cancer family. On Thanksgiving, we were on lockdown due to low white blood cell counts. A family friend brought a wonderful meal to us, and later we went for a drive through the Christmas light park. While it wasn’t our normal Thanksgiving hustle and bustle, it was a great day making memories with our three-year-old son, Jackson, and one-year-old, Brayden. We just enjoy seeing their excitement when we watch “Frosty the Snowman” or take our nightly drives to look at the lights. Read More…

This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.

My son, Sam, has yet to have a “normal” holiday season.  He was born on the day before Thanksgiving last year, so his first Thanksgiving was spent in the hospital acclimating to the world outside of the womb.  Since he was so fresh and new the slight fear of icky winter germs kept us from fully participating in all of the Christmas festivities.  Plus, we were tired and caught up in that new baby whirlwind so we weren’t too focused on trying to make the season special.

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Meet four-year-old Angelina Dorsagno.

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You know that tight feeling in your chest after running a mile? That pressure that makes it hard to breath – the brick sitting there, warning you that it’s time to stop? Imagine, if you will not being able to ever catch your breath. Imagine something inside of you competing for the very breath you’re struggling to take. And now, imagine enduring this at only 6 months old. March 4, 2009 Jaxon Kyle Wallace was born. He was a fighter from day one. Born six weeks early, the cards were already stacked against him, but Jaxon didn’t let that deter him. He learned to eat like a champ and went home after ten days in the NICU.

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