Once she was done with treatment, Maiya’s appointments went on another 1 ½ years. The family was going back and forth sometimes several times a week, driving 45 mins to an hour each way. There were labs and physical therapy; it was one test after another. Life was still far from normal.

Kylie had Acute Myeloid Leukemia and started on five rounds of chemotherapy. For the first round, they spent about one month in the hospital. Then, they got to go home in between rounds of chemo forever watchful of Kylie’s immune system, which meant that she was susceptible to infection at any time.

Just four months after Allison’s diagnosis, Karen’s mom diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2019, and she passed away only one month later. She was living in California, so Karen so trying to travel back and forth from Chicago at the same time as Allison was sick and her husband was in El Salvador.

Seven months into this journey, her family has realized the huge positive impact and support offered by having a community that understands the difficult aspects of having a child with cancer, and her mom, Lynnie, has also begun to connect with groups outside of the hospital.

“You have no idea how much we appreciate your help, I have no words to express my gratitude. Especially now that we are moving hospitals and will be in Houston, eight hours away, paying our rent makes a huge difference. Thank you,” said Clarissa.

"I especially love the care packages Pinky Swear sends! How do they know us so well? They always send the perfect things! I want to be like Pinky Swear and help people like they help us!”

“You feel isolated. Everyone knows you have a kid with cancer, so it compromises your job prospects, and I became worried about being laid off. You have to stay with it because you need the job and the benefits, and so you do the best you can."

One day Marieluz noticed bruises on her daughter’s legs. She asked her if she had fallen, but she had not. Then red dots appeared, but Victoria had not been scratching herself although she complained that her legs were itchy. Then she started coughing.

The tumor ruptured, and that is why his temperature had spiked back on New Year’s Eve; his tumor had been ruptured for nine days inside his little body. The surgery team spent the first two hours cleaning just his spleen because the rupture and inflammation had caused havoc on his insides.