Maddie Harris, a 9-year-old from Cinnaminson, has been going through a traumatic time over the last year. When Maddie was 8 years old, she was diagnosed with brain cancer, however, despite starting one of the biggest battles she has faced so far, according to her mother Cindy, she has been a superhero – living her best life, fighting a big fight and inspiring all who know her story.
“Last February, Maddie started to get really nauseous,” said Cindy. “No one really knew why she was so nauseous, so I started taking her to a bunch of different doctors. After seeing numerous doctors, I took her to a gastroenterologist. The doctor looked at her eyes and they weren’t looking right.
“Her eyes were very bouncy,” Cindy continued. “They decided to give her an MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, of her brain. The MRI found a spot on her brain that was not normal, and the doctors also didn’t know what it was. They called it a lesion.”
After initially finding out what it was to an extent, the family stayed on top of it, constantly seeing the doctor. According to Cindy, in October the family went back to the doctor and another MRI showed that the lesion grew.
“”After going back and seeing that it grew, we needed to know exactly what it was,” said Cindy. “This time they did a biopsy, a procedure to identify the presence of cause of something abnormal. The results came back that it was cancer. Then on the Monday after Thanksgiving, she receive started to receive treatment.
“At first I was in disbelief,” Cindy continued. “But by the time it got to the point that we knew it was cancer, I was pushing for it just so we could figure out what it was and what we could do about it. At first, she was very sick, so like anyone who is sick she was upset and sad, but as she started to feel better with the medicine, her attitude really started to change. She’s really amazing. Now when we go for her chemo visits it’s just like a regular day.”
Maddie’s chemotherapy is currently on a 10-week cycle that she will go through six times for a total of 60 weeks. Since she started her road to recovery, the spot on her brain has shrunk twice. According to Cindy, the family has received a lot of support from the community and the local schools. Continuing the support, on Tuesday, June 11, Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard is hosting a fundraiser for Maddie.
For each purchase made in the store, a portion of all the frozen treat sales will be donated to Maddie and her family.
