Parents of daughter battling cancer are grateful for all the community support
BISHOPVILLE, Md. – Community members in Maryland continue to support one of its youngest and most vulnerable members.
4-year-old Lakelyn was diagnosed with aggressive, grade 4 brain cancer in January, called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. Lakelyn’s parents tell us the average prognosis for a tumor that is DIPG is anywhere from 8 to 11 months.
During these trying times, we are told they need to travel, visit different hospitals, and stay at hotels. They said this can be hard, as their family sometimes has to split up, but with the community rallying around them in different ways, they said it’s helped.
“You know a lot of people say I’m sorry for what you have to go through and it’s one of those things, I don’t want to have to go through this and I wish nobody had to go through this,” Lance Draheim, Lakelyn’s dad, said. “But, to grow in some of the ways I’ve think we’ve grown in our faith and to learn the amount of love and support from the community, although it comes at an unfortunate time and in a way we don’t want it to come, just to learn so much about the people around us is incredible.”
Lakelyn’s mom, Lauren Draheim, said if it wasn’t for the community she wouldn’t be able to stand. She appreciates the big benefits, like the fundraisers, but the little things also make a difference she said.
“We go to the store and people just show up,” Lauren said. “We went out to eat today and a man saw her and went into a store and bought a toy and came back and found us and gave it to her.”
She added that going through it’s important to stay on your feet and lean on people who offer help.
“I honestly felt that I was going to die, I didn’t think I would be able to go on and immediately it’s like God wrapped his arms around us and surrounded us by all of the right people at all of the right time.” Lauren said.
Lakelyn’s parents said there’s a lot of research going into learning more about DIPG, and they are grateful for the children who donate their brains to science for this research to be conducted.
