MARYSVILLE, Wash. — It's every parent's nightmare: being told your toddler has a rare and aggressive cancer commonly known to have a 10% survival rate. For Cari Hanaway, a Snohomish County mom of two, the fear set in immediately.
But with an emerging type of radiation, a medical advancement for cancer doctors called proton therapy, turns out happy endings aren't just for the storybooks.
"We are at a point where most days are just normal life," said Hanaway.
Six-year-old Aisley Hanaway is an avid dancer, swimmer and ice skater in Marysville.
But there was a time that she and her husband John Hanaway weren't so sure that Aisley would be able to do all these things, let alone, make it out of her hospital bed.
"There's always a little inkling in the back of my mind," said Aisley's mother.
Just after her third birthday, Aisley started experience a myriad of symptoms.
"She had these headaches in the back of her head whenever she woke up and she threw up a couple of times," said her mother. That's when she and John brought 3-year-old Aisley to Seattle Children’s Hospital.
It was here where they received news that would shock them to their core.
"It was a tumor in a category called an embryonal brain tumor," said Dr. Sarah Leary, a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Seattle Children's. In other words, a "very aggressive cancer.”
Straight to surgery three days later, Aisley proceeded to undergo five months of "very, very intensive chemotherapy," according to her doctor. "And then followed by proton radiation.”
Proton radiation is a quickly-growing, more precise type of cancer treatment.
Leary said, "We can basically drop the radiation off where the tumor was, and not have it go out to hit the rest of the healthy brain.”
Leary said Seattle Children’s is the only place in the Pacific Northwest that offers it. Patients at Seattle Children's have access to the therapy through the hospital's partnership with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Canada doesn't even have a proton therapy center yet.
Aisley was still a toddler during this intensive treatment. Her mother said she wanted to have a tea party and pretended to be in a ballet class.
But now, thanks to modern medicine, Aisley's in a real ballet class — and lyrical, and jazz, and the like. Aisley is now cancer-free. As she grows up, her family will continue to cheer her on, including her doctors.
"She, you know, had that light in her eyes and that kind of spark, which I think is typical of some entertainers," said Leary. "So we'll see where she goes in life."