Written by Ben Cox – When a simple trip to the pediatrician’s office reveals something more serious than a minor infection or 24-hour bug, what do you do?

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September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Brownwood has many families who have been touched by this terrible disease. Some have tales of triumph and overcoming the diagnosis, while other stories are those of remembrance and mourning.

Sailor Reitz did not live in Brownwood when he was diagnosed with hepotablastoma, which is a type of childhood cancer most often associated with the liver. He does have family here and has moved to Brownwood since. A happy six year old who likes to chase frogs and loves his brand new baby sister, you wouldn’t know that cancer had ever touched his life.

Aside from a scar and a set of hearing aids, Sailor is just like every other boy his age in school. The hearing aids are the result of four rounds of chemotherapy, a possibility his parents Tiffany and Christopher made peace with before beginning treatment. “It was hearing or life, not a hard choice” says Tiffany.

Tiffany says her father had just passed away from cancer a month prior to her son’s diagnosis and “to hear that my kid had been sick almost the entire time my father was on hospice in our home was just devastating. Shocking. You take your kid in thinking he’s just constipated and you’ll be sent home after a few hours after everything is fixed, and to be told that’s a mass and he has some kind of cancer…. We were talking to oncologists within hours of his diagnosis.”

“We had a few moments together just holding each other, just trying to take it in and keep it together. We called our moms and my sister and let the family know so we had some support. Then we just prayed that he was gonna be ok.”

“You have a lot of thoughts going through your head, like what did I do to cause this? What could I have done differently? What did I feed my kid? Is he going to die is he going to be ok?”

Reitz also faced an unusual issue, having to take time off of work for her son’s cancer diagnosis, less than a month after taking several months off of work for her father’s hospice care. An insurance sales person, Reitz had a cancer policy in place that she says was a big part of how she was able to quit her job to care for Sailor. “That kept us afloat and took care of us. It was a really big blessing for me to be able to quit my job.”

Faith and family is largely what Tiffany says got her through Sailor’s treatment. “My husband and I being a team really got us through, as well as the small organizations like Hope From the Heart, and Cooks was awesome. They make it so easy for you to be there.”

Sailor will be holding a lemonade stand this Saturday, September 8th, at 10 a.m. at 712 Coggin Avenue, as his way to give back to Hope From the Heart for the support they showed his family. Every dollar collected will be given to the organization.

Tiffany offers this bit of advice to families who are facing a similar situation: “Things will be seem so unpredictable and overwhelming at times that will feel like you can’t go on, but you will.  Don’t push everyone away and allow them to help when offered.  Take one day at a time and just try to find a blessing in every situation. Your child may get spoiled, but that’s okay, show them all the love that you have and don’t take anything for granted.”

Thank you, Sailor, and your parents, Tiffany and Christopher, for allowing us to tell your story.

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