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Battling Cancer And Winning Hearts ...
We'd like you to meet a tiny fighter who has leukemia he is now in remession and yet his battle continues. Leukemia is the leading cause of death in children under age 15.
That battle is not only for Ryan Caraseti of Clayton, but thousands of other children.
The survival rate for the most common form of childhood leukemia is now up to 85 percent.
But until it's 100 percent for all types of blood cancers, the Leukemia Society and cancer researchers have their work cut out for them.
You would never know that 4-year-old Ryan is fighting for his life by battling cancer.
"I had heard of leukemia but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would hurt my family," said his mother, Marijane Carasiti.
Ryan is battling the most common form of childhood blood cancers; acute lymphoblast leukemia or ALL.
The first sign was enlarged lymph nodes.
"Oh large, just protruding out of his neck," said Peter Carasiti.
He remembers the blood test results. Ryan's white blood cell count should've been around 10,000.
"His counts went from 16,000 to 80,000 overnight. From there it was a whirlwind," Peter Carasiti said.
Doctors at UNC hospitals gave Ryan a rigorous course of treatments involving chemotherapy and steroids.
The chemo took away his energy. The steroids changed him physically.
"It's difficult to watch him blow-up, not be able to walk up the stairs," Peter Carasiti said.
"The steroids were by far the worst, turning him into a child we didn't know," Marijane Carasiti said. One minute he was fine, next minute he was crying."
Two years later, Ryan gets daily treatments at home but only has to go to the hospital clinic one time a month.
Ryan is well enough to help raise money to find cures for blood cancers. He's the Eastern North Carolina Leukemia Society's "Boy of the Year."
Ryan's entire family is pitching in. His older brother, Peter, raised $550 at school selling donuts. Now add that money to the $6 million the society funds to local researchers at UNC and Duke.
"I think it's great," dad said.
Because the tiniest of fighters deserve the best shot at living a full life.
The Leukemia Society foots the bill for $62 million in new projects each year.
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