Help Sophia Celebrate 5: A Battle Against Rare Cancer

Help Us Support Sophia and Her Family

Hi everyone,

I'm a family friend of Lily and have created this fund to support her and her daughter, Sophia, as well as her daughter Emma during an unimaginably difficult time.

Sophia is just shy of her 5th birthday. She should be excited about cake, balloons, and celebrations—but instead, she’s in the Pediatric ICU, fighting for her life.

Yesterday, Sophia underwent brain surgery to remove a large tumor. The procedure was successful in removing the primary mass. However, her spinal cord is covered in metastatic cancer cells. The diagnosis: leptomeningeal disease (LMD), and the cancer cells spread through her cerebrospinal fluid.

The prognosis is heartbreaking. Even with treatment, LMD is considered terminal, often with only months to live due to rapid neurological decline. Lab results in the coming weeks will tell us more about the specific tumor type.

Lily, Sophia’s mother, shared this with us after the surgery and MRI:

“We are buying time. That’s what Dr. Carter told us from the start. We don’t know yet if Sophia will wake, or how she’ll be neurologically. I don’t know why my baby had to get one of the rarest forms of cancer—just a 3–5% chance. But I do know this: I want more time with her. I will never stop fighting for her, as long as she’s not in pain. She was so excited to turn 5. I hope she makes it. I hope she makes it to 100. But today, let’s just pray she makes it to tomorrow.”

Send your prayers, your thoughts, your wishes. And if you can, please donate. Every dollar helps give Sophia a chance at more time—time with her family, time with her sister Emma, time to fight, time to hope. As the primary caregiver for her girls, Lily will not return to work as a registered nurse or back to school (for DNP) until Sophia is out of the hospital and healed. Nothing is more important to Lily than Sophia and Emma. The funds raised will help Lily stay with the girls and focus on them, rather than the financial stress of returning to work.