Rhys was diagnosed with pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia just 2 weeks before his 6th birthday.  Before his diagnosis Rhys enjoyed all sorts of fun with his 3 brothers, including gymnastics, indoor soccer, swimming and wushu. In the couple months before his diagnosis he had gone from a goofy, fun loving little boy to a tired, withdrawn and somewhat surly kid. We couldn't quite put our finger on it- hoping maybe it was just a developmental phase, but when he was finally diagnosed, all the behavioral changes made sense.  We've shared a video of him at an indoor climbing summer camp, 8 months before his diagnosis.    We feel so lucky to live near Seattle Children's Hospital, which has benefited greatly from St Baldrick's funding. Rhys is currently in treatment and is doing great. Just in the first few weeks of treatment he has stoically handled multiple pokes, lumbar punctures, transfusions and chemo; and we are confident he is going to kick this cancer and be climbing walls again in no time.  Update: March 2018 Wow, it's hard to believe we've been doing this for almost 3 years. In 2 weeks and 2 days it will be the 3 year anniversary of Rhys' diagnosis. What a rollercoaster! After active treatment, maintenance was supposed to be easy but it really wasn't. Rhys' counts went up and down. He never went back to school for 1st grade. In 2nd grade his missed school from Thanksgiving through New Years and in 3rd grade he missed the 1st week of school plus almost the entire month of November. All because of the chemo drugs, which really knocked out his bone marrow time after time. He'd be fine for months and suddenly boom! He gets lab work done and we'd learn that he was neutropenic and need of transfusions. Wouldn't it be nice if the drugs didn't kick you when you're already down? Isn't it bad enough to be a kid with cancer? That's why we need more research, specifically for kids' treatments and cures. Just because they can get up again time after time doesn't mean that we should keep knocking them down! If you've read this far then it's time to thank you for supporting the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure. Update July 2020: 2 years off treatment already. Time sure flies. Of course, schools closed in the spring, but you know what? It's OK. We're alive and well. Rhys is so used to missing school that having an online option was actually great. At least he was still in school. When he graduated from 5th grade last month we realized that the only "normal" year of elementary school for him was 4th grade. He had just finished treatment the previous summer, so energy wasn't quite back to normal but at least we had a full school year with no medical absences or hospitalizations. We're still raising funds, slower now, but we've established the Rhys' Pieces of the Cure Hero Fund and that allows us to direct our fundraising toward specific research projects. Most recently, we are generously supporting half of Dr. Katherine Tarlock's Scholar grant, studying immunotherapy targeting AML.