At age 2 a child should be running wild after discovering their legs move faster than a crawling pace but instead Mason spends his time in and out of hospital beds. This small but courageous fighter is currently taking on the biggest battle of his life and you would never know by that smile on his face.
Mason was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma in October 2013.
It all began one day when Mason fell off a bike that was too big for him and never recovered. He had bruises that were getting worse instead of better and 3 days later, his family noticed that Mason didn’t want to walk. His mother took him to the doctor and he was sent to ER where they gave Mason an x-ray, which showed an anomaly. A decision to do a CAT scan was made and a tumor was found, stretching from diaphragm to sternum and wrapping itself like a hand around his spine. The cancer was nearly in his bone marrow and if it had been diagnosed a week later, the doctors said they wouldn’t have been able to treat him. The family was in the ER for about six hours that fateful Friday. It felt like days as they found out something was wrong, then really wrong and then life threatening.from then their lives changed forever…….
Since his diagnoses, Mason has completed 5 chemotherapy sessions and is getting ready for an upcoming surgery to remove the tumor that stretches from his diaphragm to the sternum and is wrapped along his spine. Post-surgery, Mason will spend 6 weeks in UCSF for a stem cell transplant followed by several additional months of chemotherapy and radiation.
Unfortunately Mason’s illness is not the first crisis the family has faced together. A daughter, born in 2009, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. When Mason was born, his parents were terrified for the first year of his life and relieved to make it past the SIDS stage only to find themselves face to face with another worst nightmare- Childhood Cancer.
If you are interested in helping Mason and his family in particular please contact our family navigator at 916-757-6134
Items requested from family include: Gas cards, Starbucks cards, Easy Restaurant Gift Cards, or Ready Made Meals.
The family has also coordinated “Run for Mason” on Saturday, May 31st in Folsom, http://www.theyoungandbrave.com/events/run-for-mason/
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