At just 11 years old, Charlotte was diagnosed with a rare presentation of Thyroid Cancer. This has become unofficially known as Non-attached Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. However, her case would bring more questions and research than ever thought possible. At the time of her diagnosis, there were less than a handful of known cases of her exact scenario. While hearing that your child has cancer is heart breaking enough, Charlotte and her parents were immediately dealt a second devastating blow. Their insurance would not be covering anything to do with Charlotte's journey with cancer. This is Charlotte and her family's story.

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Roughly 2 weeks prior to the start of the Riley Family's heart wrenching journey, Charlotte had returned home from a camping trip with her father, and had noticed a small eraser tip sized bump on her neck. Attributing it to a bug bite and with no other symptoms, Charlotte's parents, Chad and Greer, chose to wait to see if anything developed or changed before seeking in-person medical care.

On October 12, 2025, Charlotte awoke to a large mass protruding from her neck. After numerous emergency phone consultations, it was determined that Charlotte needed to be seen immediately at a local hospital, as the large mass in question was not visible the night before and could be endangering her airway if it rapidly grew again. Upon arrival at a local hospital, Charlotte underwent a series of imaging and labs to determine what the mass could potentially be. The ENT ( Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist) on call advised to see him the next day as surgery was imminent and pediatric cancer needed to be ruled out. Charlotte was unfortunately never able to see him.

The following 8 days resulted in numerous obstacles from denials of insurance, misinformation by personnel, improper handling of paperwork, and lack of due diligence on many others’ parts causing an immense amount of stress not only on Charlotte but also on her parents.

On October 21, 2025, just 2 days before Charlotte’s surgery to have her mass removed by a different ENT, Chad and Greer received the phone call that insurance would not be covering anything to do with Charlotte’s surgery (from pre-op to surgery/anesthesia to recovery/post op) citing that the specialist and surgery center were not only out of network, but also beyond the out of network max amount allotted by their plan coverage. Insurance fought tooth and nail to not cover her surgery, even when their referral system had approved the specialist initially citing no referral needed for in network specialist. Ultimately, Charlotte's parents had no choice but to utilize a loan in order to have Charlotte’s mass removed as it had grown in those 8 days despite antibiotics and steroids.

On October 23, 2025, Charlotte underwent a Sistrunk procedure to remove the mass in question. A Sistrunk procedure is a surgical technique primarily used to remove Thyroglossal Duct Cysts. This procedure involves the excision of the cyst, a portion of the Hyoid bone, and the tract connecting the cyst to the base of the tongue, which helps prevent recurrence of the cyst. Charlotte's parents were advised that the surgery would take an hour at most from start to finish. The surgery ended up taking close to 3 hours. Charlotte’s ENT scheduled to meet back in his office the following day to remove Charlotte’s surgical drain and to go over how her surgery went.

During the meeting, her ENT discussed what all the surgery entailed (with addition of removal of several lymph nodes) and requested that the mass be sent off to a local, more specialized pathology department for additional opinions. Everyone was in agreement that whatever the mass was, needed multiple specialists' opinions. Recovery from surgery was initially thought to only take a week at most. Due to Charlotte's more complicated case, her physical recovery took almost a full 12 weeks, with many days spent exhausted and bedridden.

On October 31, 2025, Charlotte's parents received the worst phone call of their lives. Charlotte’s ENT called with the news that Charlotte’s mass was cancerous and she would need to be seen at a children’s hospital as soon as possible to schedule a total Thyroidectomy (complete removal of the Thyroid Gland) and under go radiation treatments. The ENT had already called and made contact with Charlotte’s first care team to give everyone time to review what pathology had found. It was then decided by the Riley Family that Charlotte's mother would stay at home indefinitely to become a full time caregiver for Charlotte and learn to navigate the journey ahead of them.

On November 4, 2025 Charlotte would go on to be seen for her first “cancer kid appointment” with more imaging, labs and consultations. Charlotte's parents were notified that once again insurance would not be covering anything. This time the reasoning was that the plan they had paid into for the entire year didn't offer cancer coverage or a children's hospital.

The then 3rd ENT to look over Charlotte's case, asked for the Riley Family to give them time to research and consult with other specialists across the country on how to proceed with Charlotte's care plan. Somehow Charlotte had Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (known as thyroid cancer) NOT in or on her thyroid gland but rather in a mass in her Thyroglossal region. An occurrence so rare that most of the staff had never heard of it.

Over the course of the following 31 days, hundreds of hours were spent in conference calls, emails, messaging, and research by Charlotte's care team and parents. Not only on the rarity of her cancer and circumstances, but also on trying to get any sort of insurance or financial coverage to help with Charlotte's immense medical bills.

It was determined that the family was not in the income bracket for assistance and no new insurance plan was affordable enough during an “active cancer treatment/monitoring phase". Trapped in a gap where the system has failed them, leaving the Riley Family completely on their own to fund Charlotte's care, again.

On November 26th, it was decided by Charlotte's parents and the 3rd ENT that Charlotte needed to be seen by a Thyroid specialist (Endocrinologist) who could give a better insight into what they were dealing with and how to approach her ongoing care.

On December 5th, Charlotte and her parents met with an Endocrinologist (Endo) that would rapidly change the course of Charlotte's initial care plan of a full Thyroidectomy and rounds of radiation (RAI). During this hours long meeting, every question, scenario, and possibility was laid out before them but also hope and some answers were finally given. Charlotte's “Endo” was a thyroid cancer survivor herself so she knew first hand the challenges that come with radical treatment plans and spent her entire career learning, researching and adapting to new studies and case management. She explained how Charlotte could have been able to develop this type of cancer at such a young age. It is "thought" to have been caused by a cell mutation during weeks 11 to 13 of gestation. Why it chose to show itself at Charlotte's current age? There isn't enough research or case files to determine that. There are only a handful of known documentations of this scenario in the past decade (with Charlotte now being one of them) and given the bare minimal funding for pediatric cancer research, and even less for rare genetic mutations that can cause pediatric cancer, there is not much of any information to go off of. With this new found specialist (and other new care team members), it was decided to wait and monitor Charlotte with quarterly imaging and labs to see if anything new develops before taking a radical approach and Charlotte undergoing another surgery so soon. The saving grace with Charlotte's cancer is that it is extremely slow growing. The hope is that the first surgery removed all of the cancer, however with positive findings to the inked margins, extremely reactive lymph nodes and minimal documentation of previous cases, that has left a large unknown. If the cancer had been on or in her thyroid gland, then a full removal would have been the best course of action. However, since her cancer was not found in/on her thyroid gland, waiting, monitoring, and biopsies, as needed, are the best choices for Charlotte currently, with the understanding that the plan can change rapidly.

Each “cancer clinic” that Charlotte attends includes imaging and labs along with consultations with her care team. Thus far, there has been minimal change with her labs. Charlotte's imaging continues to show new changes every time but given her current stage of childhood, it is hard to say what could potentially be of concern until her labs reflect a difference. Though there have been several scares since her last cancer clinic, Charlotte, her parents and care team continue to adapt as things come and closely monitor any new developments.

Update as of July 1st: Charlotte has found another "mass" in her original surgical site area. After having an ultrasound performed, the mass in question is of no concern currently, however the ultrasound has shown several new findings. At this time, Charlotte's care team is closely monitoring the new findings and they will be reviewed again with her next round of labs due in a few weeks, to see if there is any improvement or decline, before deciding on a course of action.

Charlotte will continue on with cancer clinics at the children's hospital until she is 18, where then she will need to continue with clinics at a cancer center for the rest of her life.

As you can imagine, each appointment not only brings an unimaginable amount of stress emotionally and mentally but also financially for the Riley Family.

Funds raised will provide unrestricted financial support, allowing the Riley Family to pay back the loans used for Charlotte's care, the on-going medical care for Charlotte and the everyday costs of life during their journey to navigate life with a child on a cancer journey.

Charlotte is a fighter, and has taken on this journey with immense bravery, however the financial reality of paying out-of-pocket for pediatric cancer care is a weight the Riley Family can no longer carry alone. Any donation that is received is a major blessing to the prayers said by the Riley family. No family should ever have to worry about how they will be able to pay for their child's cancer care on top of the already emotional stress and trauma brought on by such a diagnosis.

Your generosity gives the Riley Family the greatest gift of all: peace of mind. If you are unable to donate financially, please consider sharing this page with your network. Raising awareness of Charlotte and her family's story is the only way they can overcome this hurdle.

Thank You & May God Bless You.