Emma Rebecca Leet is now 9years old, from Canada, and is the second youngest of 9 children from her mom and dad. Emma was diagnosed on February 24/2019 with a very rare form of brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.  It is one of the deadliest types of tumor and usually develops in children between 5-10 years old. Currently, there are no other options other that radiation.

Emma had 30 radiation treatments immediately after diagnosis and she responded well. We then were able to get her enrolled in a clinical study out of Rochester Ny. The drug was called ONC201. She was taking it weekly for about 4 months and during that time she remained stable, but this also was expected because the radiation treatments tend to continue killing the cancer for many months after administered.

Emma had her 9th birthday party on July 7 at her Nonnos house. She had a bouncy castle and pool along with dozens of tables and chairs. There were some passing thunderstorms which really made the day adventurous! It was an incredible time with friends and family. 

Our family was sponsored by Children's wish foundation to go to Give kids the world village in Orlando Florida later in July. Emma went to Disney World and met all the princesses and went on rides. During the trip she was able to participate in all the activities. She ran and swam, went on all the rides she dared and ate soo much of her favorite foods.

Most of Emmas summer was spent doing family outings and getting spoiled. Everything from Canadas wonderland to Niagara falls. We had hope that we could keep her in that stable condition but then we started to notice signs that the cancer was progressing again. 

In late September of 2019 Emma began to have troubles and was admitted to Mcmaster childrens hospital were she had an NG tube and IV for a couple weeks. It was agreed at that time that Emma will have another round of radiation treatments, as the possibility was great that if we did nothing, she might pass away in weeks or months. She then had 17 more radiation treatments at Juravinski cancer center. 

Emma's last MRI showed the cancer had spread into the ventricles of her brain, and these now are separate tumor growths in themselves which may possibly present other symptoms in time. Her next MRI is scheduled for December 27 2019.

Although Emma has not regained all her motor skills she hasn't gotten worse. She has lost her ability to speak and she has a hard time moving the left side of her body. She can eat and drink well and is able to get around with the help of her loving family. This is the deadlyness of this disease, DIPG, it slowly removes the ability to control her body. In time this can become deadly.


This entire journey has been a financial stress, and as such we have decided to reach out for help with this Gofundme page. All the money goes to helping the family cope, paying off bills and providing food for the kids.
There are still a lot of things to come and we hope we can update this soon.

Thanks for reading and being part of our journey.