# @americanredcross on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxnuigdsi-p
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/72591504-americanredcross-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d8a59d94c8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-09-25T16:00:51.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Red Cross (@americanredcross) — https://gondola.cc/americanredcross

## Caption

When her son was 2 years old, Sarah received news no parent ever wants to hear: Her child had cancer.

“He had a mass over his heart, and it was pushing into his trachea,” she said.

Axton was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Immediately after his diagnosis, he stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit for a week and started chemotherapy within a couple of days.

He underwent aggressive treatment for 11 months, receiving chemotherapy between one and five times each week, then maintenance chemotherapy for almost four years. Over the course of his treatment, he received eight blood transfusions, which helped tremendously in getting him through to his last infusion.

“He would not have that much energy and be very pale,” Sarah said. “When I was with him and he got those blood transfusions, it was a miracle. It’s a miracle because the doctors and the nurses can't create this. It has to come from people. Just knowing that people were donating to help my child be successful in this very hard, aggressive treatment to battle cancer – that's kind of where I was very grateful and still am.”

In February, Axton got to ring the hospital bell, signaling the end of his treatment! 💛 He is now 6 years old, and he started first grade this year.

“This world can be so cruel, and we were definitely experiencing a very, very low point of finding out about our son having to battle cancer at such a young age,” Sarah said. “With us being thrown into that world, knowing that there are people out there who are anonymously willing to go give blood to help people that they don't know, it personally impacted me. It’s almost hard to describe in words how wonderful that is and how grateful I am and just so thankful.
 
"There’s that what-if. What if there was no blood for my son to help him in this journey of battling cancer? Where would we be? I cringe to think about that and other families that this impacts. We need blood. It’s absolutely imperative that we donate, and we thank you so much.”

#DonateBlood #GiveBlood #DonatePlatelets #DonateBloodSaveLives #GiveBloodSaveLives #AcuteLymphoblasticLeukemia #ChildhoodCancer #ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth

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## Tags

childhoodcancerawarenessmonth, childhoodcancer, donateplatelets, giveblood, acutelymphoblasticleukemia, donateblood, donatebloodsavelives, givebloodsavelives

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