All-Star Beau

“It provided a bit of hope and a feeling that humanity can be good. I was taken aback and humbled. Someone else had gone through this and knew that we needed help. It was a huge relief in a time when life was dark.” Laura, All-Star Beau’s mom, on the assistance her family received from Pinky Swear Foundation.

Beau was three years old when he started complaining of pains in his tummy and back. At first, it was believed to be just a stomach bug, but when he screamed in pain every time he went to the bathroom his mother, Laura, took him to the doctor.

Doctors said his white blood count was high because of a stomach bug, and they told Laura to put Beau on a high-fiber diet. Nothing changed and an X-ray showed a large mass, but doctors attributed it to constipation. It was then, a week later when an ultrasound was done, and Beau was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue. 

“I will never forget the look on the radiologist’s face, there was a big white part that should have been black,” Laura said. “I looked at Nate (Beau’s dad) and said, ‘It’s not cancer.’ That had never crossed my mind until then. I called my dad, and he was outside blowing snow. I told him it was a mass, and he started sobbing. Then I started crying.”

The family immediately drove home to pack some things for the long journey that lay ahead. “I said, what do we do next? I was ready to plan. Next thing we were in the car going home to get our stuff.”

Beau has an older brother too and Laura said the two are very close. “I had an overwhelming sense that the universe had sent us Beau’s older brother to help us get through this. The boys had the closest relationship, and I sensed that would help,” Laura said. 

She also remembered a Friday night at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Their room overlooked Kinnick Stadium, where fans stand and wave at the Children’s Hospital. They had watched it for years, but now they would be on the receiving end of the waves from the crowd in the football stadium.

She remembers that on the night before Beau’s surgery, a bald eagle — her late mom’s favorite bird — flew over the stadium.  

The next day, doctors removed a tumor the size of a softball from her son. Laura said it felt like her family had to fight for everything.

“We were terrified for our child’s future,” she said. “One minute you think you have everything figured out. Then you realize you have nothing figured out. Your only concern is the health piece, but soon it’s about the financial piece, too.”

Laura is a pediatric mental health specialist and had just opened an office and was back to seeing children in person after the Covid lockdown when Beau was diagnosed. Nate is a project manager for a construction company.

Beau’s diagnosis required Laura to return to working from home, juggling what she could get done, while caring for Beau, who couldn’t go to daycare. Nate continued to work.

Laura said she was constantly anxious. She wasn’t sleeping and could not leave the house except to go to the hospital. Her stress went up further every time they accessed Beau’s port.

She said Beau never got used to the needle going in his chest. When he asked why he had cancer and if other children had cancer, Laura worried about the loss of his childhood.

It was a relief when Beau completed his treatment in May 2023. The family welcomed his baby sister a year later. 

A time of celebration for the family quickly turned concerning when they found out that his baby sister was diagnosed with PKU, a rare metabolic disorder that prevents the body from metabolizing an amino acid.

“It is treatable, but she will always have a restricted diet that limits protein,” Laura said. “Otherwise, she is at risk of severe brain damage. I was so emotional, she was only four days old, and I had been thinking; the odds are in favor of me having an easy child this time. I wanted to breastfeed her and now I couldn’t. Everything was a roadblock.”

But one thing happened easily during the hard times: The application for assistance from the Pinky Swear Foundation.

Laura said her family was thinking about how they were going to make ends meet. She was only working about 20% of the time and they still had a mortgage to pay.

“Then we got an email from Pinky Swear [and] they were going to pay the bank directly,” she said. “It was so easy at a time when nothing felt easy. It helped us make it through the next month. We could pay off something else.”

Laura also remembers receiving the Orange Envelope. a program that provides timely assistance, including a $200 gift card and heartfelt letters of encouragement.

“I was curious and excited; it provided a bit of hope and a feeling that humanity can be good,” she said. “I was taken aback and humbled. Someone else had gone through this and knew that we needed help.”

Today, Beau undergoes scans every three to four months. He will receive scans until he is 13, as doctors watch his scar tissue closely to make sure there are no cancer cells.

Despite everything he’s endured, Beau is a funny, spunky, artistic kindergartener. He loves helping to clean the garage, mowing the lawn, tinkering, being outside, frogs and toads, baseball, and listening to music on an old iPod shuffle. He is super extroverted and makes friends wherever he goes.

Laura described her family as a regular Midwestern family that loves being together and now, she says her family has learned to live in the moment and “do what we want to do now.”

She hopes by sharing her story that others will learn about Pinky Swear and how they help families as they fight for their child’s life.

“It was a huge relief in a time when life was dark,” Laura said. “We are still worried about relapse, that would be so much scarier. With every clear scan, life gets a bit brighter.”