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4/14/2015
At age 9, Christian West was diagnosed with Anaplastic Medulloblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer found in the cerebellum.
There have only been 400 known cases of the disease, which predominantly affects children. The cancer leaves the child with about a 40 percent chance of survival, said Chelsea White, Christian's aunt.
Christian, who lives in Eldon, Mo., was diagnosed in November, and had surgery to remove his tumor within a week of the news. Now, at 10 years old, he is undergoing six months of intense chemotherapy treatments. On top of the treatments, he has to get lab tests, and sometimes transfusions when his white blood cell count gets too low. He is also losing hearing in his left ear, said another aunt, Mailey Richardson.
Christian's aunts say that the cancer has also removed him from his fifth grade class with his friends, depleted him of energy, and taken away his hair and appetite. Despite these everyday struggles, Richardson said Chrisitan is as feisty and funny as ever.
"He's still spunky. Even though he's going through his trauma, I get texts from him while he's in treatment. He uses his little emojis on his little phone," Richardson said. "He still has a lot of spunk left in him. And he made a pact to his parents, saying this is not going to put him down."
To honor Christian's struggle, White and Richardson, who live in Williamsburg, decided to host an event called Alex's Lemonade Stand on April 11. The event is part of a larger foundation, called Alex's Lemonade Stand, that raises awareness and money for the research and treatment of childhood cancer.
