“I knew about childhood cancer. I had seen the St. Jude commercials and knew that childhood cancer existed, but I never imagined it could impact my family. Our story really begins in 2012, when Corbin was born. Corbin was born a healthy, beautiful baby boy. The pregnancy had been completely normal, and there were no complications. Everything seemed perfect. Then, around six months old, we started noticing that something wasn’t right. He seemed to be regressing in the movement of his legs. We knew he should have been reaching those milestones, learning to roll, crawl, and eventually walk, but he wasn’t progressing the way we expected.

I remember being at a church event where Corbin was lying on the floor next to a four-month-old baby. That baby was wiggling, rolling, and moving all over the place, while Corbin just lay there. It was such a simple moment, but as his mom, I remember thinking, ‘something isn’t right.’ That feeling is what led us to take him to his pediatrician, and ultimately began a journey we never could have imagined.

The pediatrician did a couple of tests and said we needed to go to Children’s Hospital immediately. They were actually waiting for us in the emergency department when we got there, and took him back for an MRI right away.

The tests were pointing to something seriously wrong. His blood pressure was off the charts. It was one specialist and then another. Then we got a knock on the door. A team of doctors came in, and you could just tell by the aura of them coming in that it was bad news. They pulled up the imaging on the screen, and it was a massive tumor on Corbin’s spine.

I just could not understand how this was happening inside of his tiny body. We immediately started chemotherapy. He had four rounds of chemo because they had to shrink the tumor before they could do surgery. 

The doctors told us he might never be able to walk. We didn’t even know if he would survive. But we didn’t want to feel defeated by the diagnosis. We didn’t know how much time he had, so we wanted to make sure that time was good. We made every moment with him as joyful as possible. 

They would have non-profits come serve meals every Tuesday night for families, but I didn’t really engage. I didn’t want to be a part of this club. 

We had befriended the family that was staying in the room next to us. The mother came and knocked on my door one evening and asked us to come meet this organization, NC4K. We had a delicious non-hospital meal together, and I got to meet some of the volunteers, staff, and other families. We weren’t sharing our sad stories; it was just normal. 

At this point, three months in, we were behind on our mortgage because I had to stop working. Our health insurance was through my husband’s employer, so he had to work. But he burned through his PTO for all the appointments and then went into the negative. 

People ask all the time what you need help with, but it’s so hard to articulate. NC4K didn’t ask us, they just covered our mortgage bill. It was such a huge relief. 

The treatment worked to a T for Corbin. The chemo shrunk the tumor. The resection surgery did what it needed to do to remove as much of that tumor as possible. He was deemed in remission just before his first birthday. 

NC4K was such a light for us. They embraced our family and gave us opportunities to have fun together over the years, including the fashion show. Corbin was in the show when he was 3, and when he walked the runway, it was one of the first times he actually started to walk. He got a standing ovation from the audience that day, and it was one of those magic moments that NC4K gave our family. 

Cancer took away his first steps. Chemo took away his first haircut. There were all these little moments that delayed things like tooth development, bone development, even his growth. NC4K was able to give us some of these really cool memories that were even better than the milestones that you envision when you have a newborn.

Today, Corbin is a 13-year cancer survivor. He walks. He rides his bike. He has overcome more than I ever could have imagined for a little boy. He still lives with lasting effects, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He keeps moving forward. And honestly, if you saw him walking down the street, you would never know everything he has been through.

I often think of my life as having a very clear “before” and “after” Corbin’s diagnosis. Somewhere in the middle of all that uncertainty, fear, and heartbreak, I found myself. I learned how to advocate for my son. I learned how to be open to my faith and to trust that I didn’t have to understand everything that was happening to us.

You can go through an experience like this and live in denial. You can be angry. You can ask, “Why us?” And there were certainly moments when I did all of those things. But I also learned that you can choose to see life differently. You can recognize the gift in the small moments. You can slow down and appreciate the things you might have otherwise taken for granted, because none of us knows how much time we have here.

After Corbin’s treatment, I went back to work in sales, and I quickly realized something was missing. I could do the job, but I didn’t have a passion for it. My heart was somewhere else.

My heart was with pediatric cancer families.

It took a few years, but eventually I made the decision to leave sales and come to work for NC4K. Now, I have the privilege of walking alongside families who are facing their own childhood cancer journey. I get to offer support, hope, and joy whenever I can and to remind families that they don’t have to walk this road alone.

Because I know what it feels like to need someone beside you. And now, I get to be that person for someone else.”

– Dana Norrod is the Operations Manager at NC4K, an organization providing support for kids and teens fighting cancer and their families.