September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This week, our basketball program had the privilege of giving out some gift baskets and spending time with two young warriors in the community.

HAGEN

Hagen is a 5 year old boy that goes to Orchard Park! Here is his story, from his Mother Jessica:

Hagen was diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic (B-ALL) Leukemia October 30, 2024, just 6 days before his 5th birthday. B-ALL Leukemia affects your blood and bone marrow and makes fighting off infections difficult because your body makes more white blood cells instead of red blood cells.

The months leading up to the diagnosis, Hagen was struggling with fatigue, pain and aches and was starting to isolate more from friends. We met with an orthopedic doctor but there were no fractures or bone density concerns. We live an active lifestyle with his big brother Beryl (7), so I got a backpack to wear Hagen on my back for activities while I searched for answers. The week of his diagnosis, he struggled with a fever but tested negative for strep and an ear infection. After a few more days of no improvements, I took him to Dayton Children's ER and asked for blood work. Within an hour, they pulled me aside into a conference room at the hospital and said that we would be admitted to the Hematology/Oncology unit.

Since Diagnosis, Hagen had a port implanted on his right chest which is used to take labs and administer chemo. He also receives lumbar puncture/spinal taps to administer chemo directly into his spine and bone marrow as well as a few bone marrow biopsies which showed good news in January 2025 that he is in remission! This means the chemo is working, but we must continue the treatment plan through the duration because it can be really difficult to eradicate blood cancers, and you cannot risk letting them spread again. The first 11 months of treatment (called Frontline) were very intensive and required Hagen and his family to isolate, take a leave of absence from school and mom from work, and focus on all the learning curves that each phase brings. We are so grateful for our treatment team at Dayton Children's that have become almost like a second family and have been so amazing in helping us navigate this journey.

This month (September 2025) we entered the next phase of treatment called Long Term Maintenance (LTM) and we will be on this journey until February 2027 when hopefully Hagen gets to ring the bell and celebrate the end of treatment! This phase means fewer spinal taps, less hospital appointments, and instead we manage chemo at home as a family. We may even be able to travel again and visit some of his favorite places we have had to avoid for risk factors. Hagen just started his Kindergarten year at Orchard Park, and he was so excited to join big brother Beryl (2nd grade) as a Firebird! The team at Orchard Park has been absolutely amazing in supporting us as we navigate our new normal. I could not be prouder of both of my boys and how they have navigated cancer - it has impacted them both in many different ways - and in my house, we say, "The whole family fights cancer." This journey has changed us in unimaginable ways, but through the grace of our community, family, friends, medical team, and even strangers, we enter each day with a sense of gratitude and peace knowing that everything is going to be okay.

Hagen is a massive Hulk fan, and his cancer motto is that he is going to SMASH CANCER like Hulk smashes! So, make sure to SMASH your fears too and be brave like Hagen! #HagenSmash



BLAKELY

Blakely is a 4 year old girl who lives in Kettering. Here is her story from her Mother Olivia:

Blakely was diagnosed with stage 3 hepatoblastoma, a rare childhood liver cancer, in January 2024 — just after her 3rd birthday. For months we had been going back and forth to the doctor as she just wasn’t herself. She struggled with constipation, which was always the explanation we were sent home with, but she never got better. She became distant, grumpy most of the time, stopped eating, slept a lot, and her belly continued to grow despite all of our efforts to “clear her out.”

One morning, after intense belly pain and a strong pull from mother’s intuition, I took her to the ER determined to get answers — and not leave without them. I told the front desk that I believed she had a “mass” in her stomach. Those words changed everything. Within minutes, she was getting IVs, labs, and an ultrasound. When the doctor pulled me aside into a private room, my heart sank. She told me Blakely did in fact have a mass — a huge one, measuring 20 cm. By the end of the night, we knew it was coming from her liver. We were transferred to the main hospital around 2 a.m., and as we wheeled in, all I could see were the words cancer and blood disorders. That’s when I first heard my daughter’s name and the word cancer in the same sentence. It was the beginning of the most intense journey of our lives.

Blakely went through 5 rounds of very aggressive chemo to shrink her tumor. The treatment worked, but it couldn’t free enough of her major arteries to save her liver. She was placed on the transplant list — and within just 18 hours, we got the call for a perfectly matched liver. It was one of the many miracles we’ve witnessed along the way. After a 10-hour surgery, Blakely had a new liver, clear margins, and was discharged from the hospital in only 12 days. She then completed 2 additional rounds of aggressive chemo to eliminate any remaining cells, and finally — she was declared in remission. She rang the bell, and life slowly began to feel normal again.

But six months later, on the anniversary of her initial diagnosis, our world was shattered again. Blakely relapsed. Hearing those words a second time was almost harder than the first, because now we knew just how terrifying treatment was. She underwent another surgery and 3 more rounds of chemo. Her tumor marker stabilized and scans looked good. For months we monitored a suspicious area, but eventually the cancer came back — for the third time.

Now, Blakely is facing her third fight. This time the cancer returned on her transplanted liver. She recently underwent another surgery to have an ablation done and is now on her second round of treatment for this relapse. The good news is her tumor markers are responding remarkably well, and we are hopeful that the finish line is finally in sight.

This journey has been long and exhausting, but with the unwavering support of our family, friends, medical team, and even strangers, we continue pressing forward. Blakely is the strongest person I know, and I cannot wait to see how she changes the world with her strength and determination.


Both of these children, along with their families are amazingly strong and resilient. We are very thankful and appreciate both families allowing us the opportunity to be a part of their journey. We plan to continue to support them along the way. Although this is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, their journeys will continue past Sept 30th of this year. If you see these families, please send love and support their way every chance you get!