XANDER KEITH

#XANDERSTRONG

DREAM TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD
AND GIVE KIDS THE WORLD VILLAGE

Since Xander was 10 weeks old at DX, there isn't much to tell.

The news hit like a freight train! We were in disbelief, praying and hoping the doctors were wrong! Praying it was the lesser of the 2 evils of cancer they said he might have. Unfortunately, it was the eviler one. Then 2 weeks after he was diagnosed we were hit with more bad news. Xander had the N-MYC Amplified gene, which meant his tumor was very aggressive, which was why it was already in his liver. A big win though, it's never been in his bone marrow!

Xander did very well through Frontline treatment. He responded well to treatment and he was Cancer free after chemo. His type of cancer requires 2 transplant sessions with the COG protocol. It's 2 weeks of high-dose chemo and we felt he was way too little to go through this as it has a lot of long-term side effects and some kids don't survive due to the short-term side effects. So we reached out to Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC and we transferred there for Radiation and Immunotherapy. Taking this route I believe was the best choice for him, despite his hearing loss, he has thrived in so many ways, and he doesn't have any physical limitations besides high-frequency hearing loss and slight speech delay. He had some speech therapy and when he started going to Pre K he was really improving. Once he relapsed we had, unfortunately, pull him out :(

Cancer definitely takes a toll on the family dynamic. We didn't think we would have another child, but once things slowed down with Xander's treatment we decided to have another one, and we had another boy. Xander and Micah’s bond is so strong, a love-hate relationship lol. Both of these boys have kept us fighting, and by the Grace of God, kept us together. Marriage is tough, to begin with, add in a medical condition and it makes it even more challenging!

Xander loves anything and everything! He's a lover of Life. We are a Marvel-loving family. His favorite TV shows at the moment are Bluey, Mandalorian because of "Baby Yoda", and the cartoon Jurassic Park. He's looking forward to going to see the Mario movie. Mario and his cart showed up at his Birthday party a couple of weeks ago and it was the highlight of his day!
The Dream for our family would be to go somewhere and make wonderful memories away from Hospitals, and doctors, and escape the everyday life cancer throws at us.

- Linsey Keith