Teen battling multiple cancers receives Christmas surprise
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PHILADELPHIA ( KYW) — The Mummers put on their golden slippers for a Christmas surprise on Sunday, serenading a 14-year-old girl who has been battling multiple cancers. It was a chance to dance, which made the day well worth it.
“She is a fighter,” Holly Wagner said. “She is very positive.”
Superheroes do live among us.
“You’d never know what she’s going through,” Wagner said.
Lexi McAlonan is one of them. The 14-year-old has spent the past four years fighting for her life, beating Stage 4 B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma before relapsing and trying immunotherapy that put her into remission but, her mother Janine says left Lexi legally blind.
Even still…
“She’s smiles, she’s happy, she’s not negative,” Janine McAlonan said.
But then, cancer was spotted again, this time in her bone marrow.
After 40 straight days at CHOP, Lexi asked for one thing — to be home for Christmas.
“We are getting readmitted on the 29th to do another 40-day,” McAlonan said.
It’s forced the family to take things one day, one step at a time. Up next is a stem cell transplant procedure.
“Her prognosis is between 25% to 50%, probably a little lower,” McAlonan said. “This is the one shot that we have to save Lexi’s life.”
But this Wonder Woman isn’t just a cancer survivor, she’s also a mummer.
“Before she got sick, she did dance,” McAlonan said. “She’s so energetic.”
Snapping strings, bobbing heads to show this young woman that she’s not alone. With everyone watching, Lexi the dancer got up from her wheelchair and like her daily fight, decided to go strutting.
One step at a time.
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