Rileys fight against Brain Cancer

Riley, our beautiful baby girl has been diagnosed with a Glioblastoma, stage 4 brain cancer. In April 2020, Riley had a week on intermittent vomiting that was misdiagnosed as a stomach virus. She was otherwise healthy and happy with no indication that something so serious was going on. One evening, she fell over and started losing conciousness, we called an ambulance and a CT scan in our local ER revealed bleeding in her brain and a large mass...it took up the majority of her right frontal lobe. Immediately following the scan we were rushed to John's Hopkins all children's hospital for emergency neurosurgery. When we arrived she had a craniotomy to have most of the tumor removed and evacuate the bleeding. After a few days of recovery Riley went back in for a second brain surgery to remove the rest of the tumor. It was a few days later that we heard the dreaded words "your child has cancer". Our hearts were shattered. We were originally told she would not survive, then our amazing Neuroncologist at St Jude gave us hope for a cure. We made the decision to move our family to Memphis, TN so that we could stay together while Riley is treated for her cancer at St. Jude. We are fortunate to have been accepted to St. Jude and have been so greatful to the wonderful doctors and staff helping us fight this cancer. As of today Riley is acting as sweet and happy, we have had our ups and downs but she's maintained her contagious smile throughout it all. It has been 6 months and we are finally finishing up with her chemotherapy. As a family our future is uncertain... relocation, our careers, our entire life will change. All we know is that we will lean on each other and give our children the best life that we possibly can. We have been able to stay together as a family and not worry much about bills because of your generosity.. Thank you all so very much. There is a chance this tumor will return but we are hopeful that it will not and that soon we can say our little warrior beat brain cancer. 

Love,
The Goddard