Help support the Cangiamilla family and Ellie

Hi, my name is Alix and I am one of many supporters rallying around Ellie and the Cangiamilla family. We are setting up this gofundme to help the family with the numerous expenses that they will face during Ellie's treatment. The last thing a family should have to worry about when their baby girl is fighting cancer is money! Our donations and support will allow them to focus all of their energy into their girls and to helping Ellie in her fight.

I will be sharing updates here periodically, but please take a moment to read this note summarizing Ellie's diagnosis and the beginning of her fight again cancer.

"A few months after Ellie turned two, Sean and Ashley started noticing changes in her behavior. Once the happiest baby, Ellie was becoming increasingly more moody and very particular. She was becoming rigid about things and very bossy with other people, especially her twin, Cece. Everyone shrugged this off as typical “terrible-twos” and, although Ashley and Sean felt in their gut it was something more, they suspected a hidden mental health diagnosis she was too young to receive. As time went on, Ellie started becoming a bit pickier with her eating, but she was still a good eater. She started having more trouble sleeping. Right before Thanksgiving, the family went on a trip to Disneyland and Ellie had an extremely rough time. She barely took any naps. She got tired and cranky throughout the day. She was demanding. All noteworthy, but seemingly pretty standard for a headstrong toddler. While on vacation, Sean and Ashley noticed Ellie felt a little warm, but it wasn’t a fever and it passed quickly. On each of the two following weekends, she had a low-grade fever that resolved on its own within hours and had no other symptoms. It seemed like Ellie was the standard toddler building up her immune system and getting frequent minor viruses from finally branching out from Covid precautions and being around people. Following the last fever, though, Ellie was noticeably paler than Cece. That, coupled with the random fevers, sleep issues, and Ellie just becoming less and less of her usual happy self caused Sean and Ashley to think maybe she had a vitamin deficiency. Ashley took her to see the pediatrician, who ordered a chest x-ray, numerous blood tests, and an abdominal ultrasound. As soon as the blood test results started coming back, Ellie was referred to a specialty children’s hospital 2h away from home. Sean and Ashley were told she would probably need to stay there 3-4 days while they figured out why she was severely anemic, but getting a bed would probably take a day or so, due to the viral surge in hospitals. An hour later, Ashley was told to take Ellie to the local ER immediately—the children’s hospital felt she was too unstable to wait at home for a bed or to make the 2h drive in the family car. After 8h of waiting, Ellie was transported from the Modesto ER, directly to the oncology unit at the children’s hospital. A few long hours later, suspicions were confirmed—Ellie had leukemia; now they just needed to find out what kind. Ellie had a port catheter placed in her chest and after more tests, a lumbar puncture, and one failed and one successful bone marrow biopsy, Ellie was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The prognosis was and remains good—90% of kids Ellie’s age will survive at least 5 years after their diagnosis. If you know the story of Ellie and her sister, you know she was a fighter before she was even born. As a NICU warrior and TAPS survivor, if anyone can beat this, it’s her. But the road to hopeful survival, remission, and eventual cure is a long one. The first few months are the most critical and entail aggressive treatment that requires frequent hospital visits and stays, frequent transfusions and infusions, daily chemo treatments, and the family staying close to the children’s hospital. After that, follows several months of semi-frequent travel between the Central Valley and Bay Area, followed by 1-2 years of regular maintenance appointments and treatments in the Bay. And that’s the best-case scenario, if all goes according to plan.

Funds raised will go towards hefty medical bills, as treatment will last 2-3 years total and Ellie will need to be hospitalized (and likely transported back to the children’s hospital 2 hours away) any time she has any sort of illness or infection. They will also go towards all the hidden costs of cancer: time off work for Ashley and Sean, gas for traveling between the valley and Bay Area, food and lodging for when they have to stay near the children’s hospital, coping support for Ellie and Cece, etc."