Please Spread the word, we have to find a cure for childhood cancer, Hi my name is Rachelle Hopkins, I am the mother of a child that had cancer. As a mom there is nothing like raising a child, it's so rewarding and you try your best to give the best to your children. When my family received the news about our son having brain cancer, it was devastating, I can't put into words.
On December 12th 2020 at 10:25pm My husband and I received word that there was a mass in our son's brain. We immediately went to the hospital, they said he needed emergency brain surgery and they called care flight to fly us from Reno, NV to Oakland, CA. Our son Daniel was diagnosed with a very rare tumor, only 30 people in the world are diagnosed with tis tumor a year. He had a Mature Teratoma Tumor mixed with a germ cell tumor.
Daniel was 12 when he was diagnosed, he is now 15 and is living life as normal as possible. It was a long and hard journey for him, her had 3 major brain surgeries that were 14 hours each, to remove the tumor because Chemotherapy wasn't working. He had to have 6 chemotherapy treatments, and 6 weeks of daily radiation, and countless other surgeries, blood transfusions and platelet transfusions. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what my son had to go through. After Daniel's brain surgeries, he had to learn how to do everything again like drink water, talk, walk, even brush his teeth.
We are one of the lucky ones where our child is healthy now, and living his life, but there are so many other kids that are not. This is a wakeup call to all that have read this so far, we need to fight for our children and their lives. I can't stress enough about how this effects families, even friends of families who have this happen. There is no excuse, we need to find a cure, no child should have to face this type of illness... ever.
