Brandon was 3 years old when he was first diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma. A rare muscle cancer in his thigh. We were all devastated but stayed positive through his chemo and radiation treatments. The treatments were not easy for him as he did not understand why he was so sick. After rounds of chemo and radiation, he had surgery to remove the tumor. He was now cancer free! Until the age of 7 when it came back. He now had Osteosarcoma in the femur where he had the Rhabdo in. It was radiation induced Osteosarcoma. With the recommendation of genetics at Penn medicine, we got him tested for any kind of mutations. They found that he has LFS (Li Fraumeni Syndrome) A very rare gene mutation that makes him more susceptible to certain cancers. With this new cancer they would not do any radiation treatments (radiation is bad for people with LFS), just chemo and surgery. Surgery that we knew he may lose his leg if the docs could not replace the femur with a rod. Luckily, we had THE best orthopedic surgeon at Penn medicine, and he saved his leg and replaced it with a rod. Brandon knew the risks and knew he had to be very careful with that leg for the rest of his life. Now again he was cancer free but knowing his gene mutation he needed to go to Penn for checkups often and full body MRIs. He did have 2 diagnoses of kidney cancer, but those were removed surgically, no chemo needed. The timeline for me gets blurry from here on out. As a mom, to see this happen over and over again, you learn to just block it out and be there for your child. His last diagnosis was Osteosarcoma in his jaw. That was a very invasive treatment. Chemo, major surgery to remove part of his jaw and use part of his lower leg bone to replace it. Skin graphs from his arm to replace the skin. The kid went through hell. BUT he always remained positive and never complained about anything. Unfortunately, this last diagnosis would spread to his lungs. He said to me as we were in the ER and said, "Mom I don't want to do this anymore". I convinced him to try to do chemo because I myself was starting chemo for my second battle with breast cancer. He agreed by saying, "We can see who gets their hair back first". We both started chemo, but his was not working as well as the doctors hoped. His lungs filled with fluid; he was in a lot of pain. We took him to Penn to see his Oncologist and that is where they told us there was nothing more they could do for him medically, just keep him comfortable. About a week later, on April 7th, 2021, Brandon lost his lifelong battle with cancer. Its been a rough 5 years without him. Everyone who knew him feels an emptiness now that he is gone. He was and always will be my hero.