It’s hard to think of something more monumentally unfair than when a child’s life is in danger. Right as they’re supposed to take their first steps into discovering this new world they’ve arrived in, they find themselves fighting for the ability to even stay here.
And although we can punish someone heartless enough to dare harm an infant, there’s sadly nobody to blame when the culprit is an illness.
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While the very concept of fighting for their child’s life takes an extreme emotional toll, the actual business of doing so can have its own surprising stresses. And nobody recognized that more than one Alabama man’s fellow teachers.
When Kinsley Green of Hunstville, Alabama was 11-months-old, her parents noticed something was wrong.
As it said on her GoFundMe page , “David and Megan knew something was wrong when their happy, smiley, giggly baby girl began to act sick. They knew in their hearts something was not right and continued to press the doctors to look further.”
Kinsley was taken to the hospital for what seemed like a blood infection, but turned out to be acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
As she needed chemotherapy for about five weeks, her mother, Megan, took leave from work to stay with her. However, as the fundraising page explained , this was only the first step of the six months of treatment that followed.
Kinsley’s father, David, also wanted to be with her as she faces this disease, but this turned out to be more complicated in his case.
As CNN reported , that’s because the history teacher and football coach at Mae Jemison High School receives one sick day a month. This meant that it didn’t take him long to use up whatever he had banked.
And so, Megan turned to Facebook with a plea to any teachers in Alabama.
CNN reported that David needed about 40 days to help Kinsley through the worst of it, but Megan asked for any transferable sick days his fellow teachers could spare.
But the teachers of Alabama responded with more generosity than the Green family could’ve imagined.
Not only did they get the 40 days they needed, but the total donated sick days totaled up to 100.
According to CNN , two of these sick days came from Wilma DeYampert, who is both an assistant principal at Lakewood Elementary and currently battling breast cancer herself.
Not only that, but people showed their kindness to Kinsley’s GoFundMe page as well.
In six months, the campaign has raised $42,171, which is well above its $25,000 goal.
The money will cover medical, gas and living expenses during Kinsley’s treatment and if any is left over, it will go towards childhood cancer research.
Now 16-months-old, Kinsley has finished her chemotherapy treatments and her mother recently posted about waiting for her white blood cell count to increase before she can leave the hospital.
Megan described Kinsley’s immune system as “wiped out,” which puts her at serious risk of infections in a non-sterile environment.
Unfortunately, today’s update brought some more distressing news.
As Megan wrote on Facebook, doctors found “blasts” in about 6% of Kinsley’s blood.
What this means is that her body is developing immature blood cells that can either be the result of recovering from chemotherapy or herald the return of her leukemia. The reason for these blasts remains to be seen, which has Megan and many of Kinsley’s supporters praying.