Hailey Seemungal's Brave Fight Against Cancer

"Your child has cancer.”

The scariest words a parent can hear. These 4 words shattered our world on June 7th, 2024. What started out as an urgent care visit at 9am turned into not one but two emergency room visits ending with an oncologist at 7pm. Normally, you’d leave the ER after such a long day and complain about the wait time. I wish we had gotten that lucky. An admission on the oncology floor of a children’s hospital was what awaited us. Tears, devastation, confusion, fright... every emotion was felt that day and every day since then. Our bright star, Hailey, just had her world turned upside down. In an instant, she couldn’t dream of her future anymore. Her reality felt like a nightmare. An active, athletic, smart, beautiful, kind, 14-year-old girl. Who would’ve ever imagined someone of that profile would receive a cancer diagnosis? Cancer doesn’t care. It doesn’t discriminate. It just breaks your heart in ways you never knew possible. While we may never know how or why this happened, we couldn’t focus on that. We had to pull it together to be there for our daughter while she got ready for the battle of her life and man is she a fighter! A warrior as called by her oncology team. To say she’s had a hard journey is an understatement. She’s had bump after bump and each day is filled with uncertainty and anxiety. While inpatient during Induction, Hailey developed a large blood clot on her left upper arm and neck and aspergillosis pneumonia, eventually landing in the ICU. What should’ve been a 30-day hospital stay turned into 57 days. Fast forward to September, into the consolidation phase and the week of her birthday, Hailey was admitted for complications from a treatment and a new condition emerged: PRES syndrome. Once again, doctors have no explanation of why or how this happened and we’re left watching our girl face another challenge. So much has happened in such a short time. With all of this, Hailey hasn’t given up. A true warrior. She’s been knocked down over and over and she refuses to stay down. As parents, we wish we could make it better for her. We wish we could take away her tears and pain. All we can do is be there for her and with her throughout this chapter in our lives. Hailey is the 2nd of 3 children and the glue that holds us together. Her diagnosis devastated her older brother and younger sister. They’re best friends. When she’s in pain, we’re in pain. There is no greater emotional roller coaster ride than watching your child go through the ups and downs of chemotherapy, praying for more good days than bad. There is no preparation for cancer. It’s not a journey anyone should go through alone. As a family, we’ve had to make sacrifices to ensure Hailey’s needs are fully met and that she never has to feel alone. Financial and emotional strains are also part of the journey. We’ve tried to do it all on our own from the beginning but little did we know how much extra support Hailey will need as the chemotherapy cycles progress. Unfortunately, we’re not as prepared as we’d hoped, so we’re asking for a little extra help. We’ve taught our super independent Hailey that it’s ok to ask for help to get through this but somehow we didn’t take our own advice. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness but that of strength because no one is ever truly alone. All we need to do is ask. Will you consider helping us care for our daughter throughout her chemotherapy journey? Every bit counts and is appreciated and one day we will pay it forward to repay the kindness we’ve received.

~Zorida Rasool-Raghoonanan