After one family said their baby was sent home with two months to live, neighbors and friends around the world have banded together to create early Christmas for the boy.
“We decided to make every day that he has left as amazing as it can be,” Brody’s sister McKenzie Allen, 21, told ABC News. “We try to think of every fun thing that he would like to do to just bring a smile to his face.”
Last year, the family took 2-year-old Brody to see Christmas lights displays and his face lit up with joy and excitement.
“He loves Christmas lights,” Allen said. “So we decided to do Christmas early.”
In May, Brody’s family realized there may be something more serious wrong with him after he appeared dizzy, vomited and had difficulty walking.
“We got really worried because he just laid down on the floor and threw up and then was just drooling. It was terrible,” Allen said.
The family said they took Brody to a hospital where they were told the boy may have an inner ear infection. But when they took him to the children’s hospital for treatment, Allen said doctors found four brain tumors.
Brody was in the hospital for treatment for the aggressive cancer for almost 100 days, the family said, but on Aug. 4, the doctors found another tumor and that the main tumor had grown significantly.
“That’s when we had found out that the chemo treatment wasn’t working,” Allen said. “That moment was even worse than finding out he had cancer in the first place.”
The doctors told the family that there is nothing more they could do for Brody and that he might have only two more months. He was released to go home.
“It’s was unimaginable. I really don’t have any word, but the best I can describe is my heart just instantly drops to the bottom of my stomach,” Allen said. “I felt hopeless and scared. I was a little angry too, I mean he’s so young.”
The family decided making the time that Brody has left the best life he could live. Three weeks ago, the family had a “birthday” party for him.
“We had an early birthday for him and just let him open presents and had a birthday cake and all sorts of fun stuff,” Allen said.
On the family’s Facebook page, which they said they set up a week after they found out Brody had cancer and now has 6,000 followers, they posted about throwing the early Christmas party for him and asked for decorations.
“He has no idea how sick he is,” the boy’s father, Todd Allen wrote on the post. “He doesn’t care. He just wants to have fun and enjoy every minute.”
The family received an outpouring of support from neighbors and strangers in the community who brought them Christmas items, according to Allen. A week ago, their town of Colerain Township in northern Cincinnati started to decorate for Christmas too.
Some friends and neighbors have also set up early Christmas decorations at their homes to join the family.
“It’s amazing,” Allen said about the people who have joined “Team Brody.” “We have people in New York that have decorations up and all across the United States.”
She said the family has also been contacted by people in Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Germany, Russia, Belgium, and Italy who want to send Brody Christmas cards.
Back at home, people in the community have organized a Christmas parade for him.
“Everybody is sending their personal Merry Christmas wishes to Brody,” she said, adding some said they even put pictures of Brody on their Christmas trees.
