LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT/Gray News) – Just days after celebrating the birth of their youngest child, a Kentucky family learned their oldest child’s cancer had returned.
Greyson, 7, loves Minecraft, Pokémon, playing outside and spending time with his two younger sisters. He is also an incredibly strong kid who is now facing a cancer diagnosis for the second time, WKYT reports.
“It’s just something that you never think is going to happen to your family,” said Gabrielle Wireman, Greyson’s mom. “You see it happen to other people, but it never really hits that close to home.”
Greyson’s mother says the 7-year-old was diagnosed with acute meyloid leukemia in February. He underwent four rounds of chemotherapy and beat the disease in June.
Newly cancer free, Greyson enjoyed the rest of his summer and was able to go back to school with his friends in the fall, his mother wrote on a GoFundMe set up for the family.
However, in November, just four days after Greyson’s youngest sister was born, abnormal labs led doctors to confirm the 7-year-old’s leukemia had returned.
“In my heart, I kind of knew that it had come back,” Wireman said.
The family has been spending much of the holiday season at UK Hospital, where Greyson’s mother says he is expected to have two rounds of chemotherapy. He will then need a bone marrow transplant, which would be done in Cincinnati.
“His doctor said this will be about a year long battle and his chances of recovery are in the 60%,” Wireman wrote on GoFundMe. “My heart as a mother is beyond broken. No child should have to fight cancer once, let alone twice.”
Greyson has been asking tough questions about his diagnosis and health, scenarios that no 7-year-old should be thinking about, his mother says. However, she says faith has been a constant throughout both cancer battles.
“There’s a saying that whenever children fight, they don’t fight alone, and that has been the case in both of his diagnoses,” Wireman said. “He knows that there is God and that God loves him, and he trusts that God will heal him.”
Greyson’s bone marrow transplant means the family would need to stay in the Cincinnati area for a few months. Wireman says she is trying to juggle moving the family for the procedure while also being able to keep their home in Powell County.
“You work your butts off to buy a home for your family and to make it a home,” she said. “I want him to come home after everything he’s been through to lay in his bed in his room and to play with his friends next door.”
Wireman hopes the family’s GoFundMe will help keep them together in Cincinnati over the coming months and cover their mortgage in their absence.
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