Kevin, Joani, and July Dotson

July Dotson is a joyful four-year-old from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He loves Jesus, football (especially the Oklahoma Sooners), visiting the beach, and his little brother, two-year-old Kolter. July loves playing outside and anything to do with a ball. His larger-than-life personality brings everyone joy. He loves his friends and family in a big way, and is happiest when he is with his people.

On October 12, 2023, July’s parents, Kevin and Joani, received the earth-shattering news that July was diagnosed with a large, devastating inoperable brainstem cancer, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). The only cure is a miracle.

They quickly traveled as a family to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis so that July can begin to receive treatment that will allow him to thrive for however God keeps him with us.

The friends and family of Kevin, Joani, July and Kolter humbly ask for any help you can provide. We have set this goal out of love to cover every need, so they can focus on July’s care and spend every moment together in the wake of this catastrophic illness.

How you can help:

Pray: We pray for God’s mercy and will to be for July to be the first ever to survive this diagnosis. There has to be a first.

Share July’s story: “Please, please keep sharing July’s story and praying. I keep telling people, there is this peace that is over me that can only be explained by the prayers our team is praying,” said July’s dad, Kevin. July literally has people praying for him from all over the world! Please use #ItsJulyYearRound so the community can grow.

Contribute: Your contribution, no matter how big or small, can make an incredible difference. This site only keeps 3%. 97% will go towards the expected future travel, lodging, medical, food, and the unfortunate end of life events for July unless God provides an immediate miracle.

Send Well-Wishes: Your thoughts, prayers, and positive energy mean the world. Please leave messages of support to lift their spirits.

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Update from Kevin on 10/16/23:

A couple things we learned today, July will have an MRI again tomorrow morning focusing on his brain and spine. The spine is something that threw us off, but it’s all precautionary. Later this week, He will have a biopsy of the tumor and a port put in. The port was a surprise for us. But, we believe it will be much more beneficial for July throughout this process.

The most surprising thing today was that July will not receive chemo. Just radiation. Chemo is not effective against these types of tumor. Not that I was looking forward to chemo, it’s just more punches to the gut of just how evil DIPG is.

Specific prayer requests:

1. Always at the top, that the only physician who is capable to remove this tumor will remove it. We pray for Gods mercy and will to be for July to be the first ever to survive this diagnosis. There has to be a first.

2. For every time July has an MRI or radiation, he will need to be sedated. July is a very, very, very angry person when he comes out of anesthesia. Just pray for his little soul and mind during those times. They are very confusing for him. He will go from telling everyone he hates them, nobody likes him, to crying and apologizing for being mean. As you can imagine those times are very, very crushing for himself as well as his mother and I.

3. Continue to pray for Kolter. He is feeling every ounce of unrest in this situation. He hasn’t slept well for a while, but since this has started it’s been way worse. Last night he woke up several times angry and scared for his brother. Each time he woke up he was either crying about his bubba being sick or angry about having to take a road trip for bubbas booboo’s.

4. Continue to pray for my marriage. In this high stressful situation, it is so easy to be upset with your partner over the smallest of events. Just pray, Joani and I continue to honor, respect, and love one another daily.

Thank you all for walking alongside us.

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Original post from Kevin 10/13/23:

We have been very hesitant to share this news on social media, mostly because I want this nightmare to not be real and to not have to relive this memory. But I know it is very real and my family can not navigate this alone. So, I am asking for as much prayer as you can direct towards my family.

Please take the time to lift up my July and the rest of us in your prayers. As parents, Joani and I got the absolute worst gut wrenching news, that no parent ever wants to get…

July (my oldest, 4yr old) was admitted to St. Francis Children’s Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier that day at school He had some balance and just very abnormal behavior as far as stability and focus.

His classroom teacher (OUR HERO!) recognized his mannerisms and got the ball rolling for him needing medical attention. It was because of her wisdom that we got July in for the care he needs.

Joani took him to his pediatrician and she noticed right away of how unbalanced he was and some other tests that were alarming to her.

She sent him to ER for further evaluation. They did a CT scan to rule out a stroke, because a lot of his symptoms were stroke like. But, they saw a spot on his brain stem. The mass is putting pressure on his brain stem.

They did an MRI of his brain, and the results revealed a brain tumor known as DIPG inside his brain stem. It is inoperable and the only cure is a miracle. We are praying to our God for that miracle.

There is treatment options, but all of them just prolong the worsening affects of the tumor. With treatment we’re looking at a year max.

He is currently on his first round of steroids, with hopes to alleviate some pressure.

Joani and I have some big decisions to make as far as how we want to approach his treatment and where we want to get treatment.

I just ask that you pray for our July and us. We are scared and staying strong for July. We need wisdom in making the best decision for his treatment that will allow him to thrive for how ever God keeps him with us. We need a miracle.

We also have our 2yr old, Kolter to consider in all of these decisions. He and July are best buds and we need prayers in navigating that with our boys. We haven’t seen Kolter since Wednesday. So pray the steroids we are on will allow us to take July home for at least 24-48hours before we depart for wherever we do his treatment.

Please share July’s story and our prayer requests with all your church and prayer warrior families. We need all the support we can get on that end.

Much Love!