LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- They're our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. And more than 13,000 of them are diagnosed with a disease terrible for anyone to endure, let alone a young one.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and THV's Lauren Scott introduces us to a resilient 2-year-old beating the odds.
When you think of two year olds you think of teething, potty training, and walking, but the so-called terrible twos take on a whole new meaning for Raymond Kyle. He accomplished those mile stones all while fighting one of the toughest diseases out there: cancer.
Raymond Kyle is in a lot of ways just your average two year old. He likes to play ball, and games. But, something you don't typically see following two year old boys is a trail of cords.
You see, in Raymond's two years he's been through more than some people have been through in a lifetime. He has neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that forms and grows in the bones. Raymond's mother Jessica Kyle says, "When he was first diagnosed it was through all his bones and the majority of his body."
Jessica's been watching her son battle cancer since December. She says, "At the end of November he just kind of quit walking, it was like he just decided I'm going to quit walking today and I'm going to scream for mom which is not like him."
Jessica could tell his legs were hurting him. She says, "The look of pain that crossed his face just broke my heart."
And that look of pain was the beginning of nearly a year of doctors visits, emergency room trips and hospital stays. Jessica says, "It's scary, our first introduction of doing medical stuff with him was flushing his lines and hooking him up to medicine pumps."
But Jessica says all along, Raymond kept her spirits up by being his loveable self.
And now this story is on its way to a happy ending. After nearly a year of shaky ground, comes a future that only hope can bring. Jessica says, "He has less than two percent of cancer in his bones so they can't say he doesn't have it for 100 percent but less than two percent, that's amazing."
Raymond is now in the maintenance stage and is taking medication. He is set to go home to Fort Smith Saturday just in time for his third birthday on the 23rd.