Charlie – 2024

Charlie is a beautiful 5-year-old who loves art, dancing, swimming, and singing. She also happens to be pretty fast at running. She started having bowel and bladder issues at 2 years old. Despite numerous trips to the emergency room, Charlie was always sent home with a diagnosis of constipation. At 3 years old, doctors found a 5-inch abdominal tumor and diagnosed her with Stage Four cancer. 

It started as a Sacrococcygeal Teratoma, a typically benign tumor that forms on a fetus’ tailbone in utero. This was missed on ultrasounds in utero and in her frequent emergency room visits. When left undetected, SCTs can turn cancerous, as was Charlie’s case.

Smiling through each hospital admission at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Charlie began chemotherapy. She would often be found on her little pink tricycle, making up races with her nurses. After 4 rounds of chemo, scans showed that Charlie’s abdominal tumor had shrunk and her liver lesions had decreased significantly though they were still there.  Charlie had an 8-hour surgery to remove her abdominal tumor. It was successful in that the whole abdominal tumor was removed along with several liver lesions biopsied. The liver biopsies came back with active cancer cells so Charlie had more treatment in her future.

Charlie was eventually transferred to Seattle Children’s Hospital for high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. Charlie’s port was switched to a double lumen hickman line and one of her ovaries were removed for fertility preservation. Her stem cells were collected and frozen to be given back to her after each round of high-dose chemotherapy. 

After another 5 rounds of high-dose chemotherapy, Charlie’s scans showed her liver lesions had decreased but there were still about 5 left in different areas of her liver, making her surgical team uncertain if they could remove all of them. In a miraculous 10-hour surgery, every lesion was removed leaving 40% of her liver, with good margins!   

Having endured so much in her little life her mantra became “I’m a tough girl, I do tough things. “

While Charlie’s scans were clear of cancer in January 2024, doctors confirmed in August that her cancer has returned. She will have chemo treatments for about 4 more months. Please keep Charlie in your prayers and support her in her mantra by purchasing one of her special ornaments and/or votives.