A message from Lorina (Arya's Mom)

On February 5th, 2025, our world changed forever when my vibrant 3 year old son Arya was diagnosed with leukemia, just weeks before his 4th birthday. What we initially mistook for flu/ anemia which were nausea, loss of appetite, weakness, high fever, alarming paleness, and bleeding gums—quickly escalated to an emergency room visit when Arya became too weak to stand. The diagnosis came as a devastating shock. Everything moved so rapidly that disbelief and denial were all that carried me through.

The very next day, February 6th, brought one of the scariest moments of my life. Arya was scheduled for his first spinal tap and bone marrow biopsy in the ICU, but things didn’t go as planned. Since he had a fever and severe cough, and when they sedated him, his body didn’t respond well. I was sitting outside the room with my daughter Catalina, waiting for the procedure to finish, when suddenly alarms went blaring. Someone over the intercom announced “CODE BLUE.” Everyone went rushing into the room, a nurse running in with the crash cart, people telling me I needed to leave and wait in the waiting room. Thankfully, one nurse heard me say I wasn’t leaving, that I wouldn’t get in the way but just wanted to make sure he was okay.

Reality only truly settled in when we found ourselves on the oncology floor, surrounded by other children Arya’s age facing similar battles. Arya’s CANCER journey has been such a rough road for us all. Arya has gone through so much from pokes when getting labs, port accessing, spinal taps, bone marrow biopsy, oral chemo everyday, having to be on steroids, at home shots of chemo where I had to administer, the fear of losing his hair and finally growing back, aching bones DAILY, and a surgery from a bacterial hip infection and learning how to walk again. This is something you never think your child will have to battle. Arya continues to show remarkable strength and tells himself everyday

I’M BRAVE, I’M STRONG, I GOT THIS!

How Your Donations Will Help

As a mom of 3, I've had to cut my hours significantly so I can care for Arya. It would help us tremendously from gas to get to appointments, hospital stays and bills to stay afloat and much more to help us get through this cancer journey.