Dreaming Forward: Kaylahni’s Story 

Kaylahni, a senior in high school, looks forward to her future. She plans to work in the medical field and caring for others and draws her strength from a childhood cancer diagnosis. She uses her diagnosis as inspiration to pursue her passion for helping others and to make a positive impact on the world. 

At only a couple of months old, Kaylahni started making silly faces – typical for a baby, her mom, Kiara, thought. Kiara’s mother-in-law noticed baby Kaylahni was exhibiting other weird behaviors, such as not being able to follow moving objects with her eyes and favoring one side of her body. Still, Kiara did not know what this meant.  

After a family trip to New York, Kaylahni began to cry frequently, became cranky, and was just not like herself. Kiara took her to a doctor, where they were told that she was overstimulated from the trip. A day or two later, Kaylahni developed a fever.  

Kiara took Kaylahni back to the doctor and bounced back and forth from the pediatrician to the emergency room. The pediatrician deduced that Kaylahni had a viral infection, and told Kiara to let it run its course and begin home care.   

However, Kiara knew something was wrong when Kaylahni was too lethargic to keep her hand in the air.  

Kiara took Kaylahni back to the pediatrician and explained that her symptoms had gotten worse. She still had a fever, was vomiting and would not eat or drink. Directly after their appointment, Kiara received a call that said Kaylahni’s white blood cell count was high, and that they had to be admitted to the local hospital. They thought she had meningitis.  

At the hospital, they immediately began an antibiotic round, without yet knowing what Kaylahni had, and also performed a spinal tap. When the doctor came into the room with her spinal fluid in a vial, he said that he was sure it was meningitis because of its cloudiness.  

After an overnight stay in the hospital, Kaylahni woke up and almost immediately had a seizure. Within minutes, Kaylahni was put in a helicopter and transferred to Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital in Hershey.  

It turned out that for months, those silly baby faces were something called absence seizures, a type of seizure common in children that can involve brief, sudden lapses of consciousness.   

In Hershey that night, Kaylahni’s doctors performed an MRI and many other tests, which resulted in finding a tumor in her brain that needed to be removed immediately. 

The surgeons told the family Kaylahni had a 50% survival rate because she was so young.  

The surgery was supposed to take eight hours but took less time and was performed successfully. The surgeons also told the family that it was highly probable that Kaylahni would be unable to see or speak, among other potential side effects of her tumor and the surgery, including continuation of the seizures.  

After the hospital had biopsied Kaylahni’s tumor, they found that she had Ependymoblastoma, a highly malignant and rare childhood brain cancer. This meant Kaylahni needed chemotherapy. She ended up developing hydrocephalus and needed a shunt, which resulted in a delay in her chemo treatment start, but she started shortly after.  

Kaylahni had six rounds of chemo and a stem cell transplant all before the age of one. Despite the doctors’ warnings of potential side effects, Kaylahni has grown to her full potential.  

Kaylahni’s health has always been a concern after her treatment; whether it is a headache or a hospital stay, Kaylahni and her family could not leave cancer behind once treatment was over. Even after all these years, Kiara says that “it’s still rough.”   

Through THON™, Kaylahni’s family has created lifelong friendships with girls from Delta Gamma. Over the years, the Delta Gamma girls have attended Kaylahni’s swim meets and driven around with her, listening to music and talking.  

“We’ve become a family,” Kiara said. “Kaylahni has her own relationship with all the girls now that she’s older, and she talks to them all the time. It’s awesome.”  

Four Diamonds’ support throughout Kaylahni’s cancer journey has not gone unnoticed. They helped Kaylahni and her family get Medicaid, pay medical bills, and provided gas and food vouchers to make traveling to and from Hershey easier.   

Kaylahni has taken her story and has become an inspiration to others by sharing her story with her classmates at her school’s Mini-THON. She also now serves as one of the Overalls for Mini-THON.  

“When I think about my future, I see myself making a difference in the lives of others. After everything I’ve overcome as a childhood cancer survivor, I’ve been inspired to pursue a career in healthcare and emergency services, with hopes of becoming an EMT and eventually a paramedic,” Kaylahni said.  

Despite Kaylahni’s young diagnosis and what seemed like the world against her, Kaylahni is now a senior in high school. She is on the swim team and enjoys freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. She also loves reading, particularly books by Abby Jimenez.   

Kaylahni has shown us that even with dangerous surgery, potential side effects and chemotherapy, you can persevere through anything. Kaylahni has taken her treatment and has used it as motivation to make an impact on the world around her.   

“My journey has taught me to never give up, no matter what challenges life brings. I dream of using my experiences to help others during their most difficult moments and showing that your past does not define your future,” Kaylahni said.  

During Dream Forward, Kaylahni and her family’s story serve as a reminder of why we THON. We THON so that children, no matter their age, are able to grow up and realize their goals and passions. Together, we fight for a world where all children can become dreamers. We fight for a world where they can grow up and see their dreams come true.  

The Dream Forward campaign aims to raise $1,500,000 For The Kids®, to help all kids to live out their dreams, free of childhood cancer.