00:00Nobody ever expects to hear the words that your child has.
00:04Ansley's journey with neuroblastoma began Memorial Day weekend in 1999,
00:09but it wasn't until June of 1999 that we got her official diagnosis of neuroblastoma stage 2.
00:16We were told that treatment would be a walk in the park and she would never remember it,
00:21but by December of 1999, Ansley's had returned to the original spot,
00:26but also progressed into both of her lungs.
00:29Despite reaching stage 4 at such a young age, she still had a long journey ahead of her.
00:35So that made her, at that point, a stage 4 with neuroblastoma.
00:39And really was the beginning of what was a 19-year battle, chasing a cure.
00:43June 2025 is the 25th anniversary of Ansley's first MIBG treatment,
00:49the first of many, many, many trips for, back then, what was experimental treatment called MIBG.
00:55It can't have been easy seeing your daughter go through treatments like this.
00:59December of 1999, when she relapsed for the first time,
01:02her neuroblastoma went from the original tumor spot and spread into both lungs.
01:07We ended up at University of Michigan for the summer of 2000.
01:11She was the 10th child to ever receive it.
01:13But I remember, like, they had to wrap everything in the room with plastic.
01:16Anything that went in the room became radioactive, so it stayed in the room after Ansley came out.
01:21Her clothes had to stay in the room, any toys, any stuffed animals, any pajamas.
01:26She had turned 3 years old.
01:28They had to take extra precautions due to the radiation.
01:31The door stayed open, but there was a 3-foot lead wall all the way around the bed,
01:35and we could see over the wall and talk to her.
01:38Remember, she had to learn to walk and talk and all over again.
01:42I think it was the better part of 3 days that she had to be in that room.
01:47In complete isolation.
01:48Because she was radioactive.
01:50Yeah.
01:50She went on to have this MIBG treatment 3 times up there over the course of the next 10 years.
01:56Sadly, after a 19-year-long battle, and at just 21 years old,
02:02Ansley was taken from this world.
02:04Now her sister reflects on how growing up with Ansley has impacted her life.
02:09I didn't necessarily notice the impact that Ansley's journey was having on me at the time growing up.
02:14But as I went through nursing school and then into my career,
02:18I'm able to look back and see that, like, our childhood was not the norm.
02:22It was our normal.
02:24I didn't always want to be a nurse.
02:26I used to want to be a teacher.
02:27And then as Ansley's journey developed,
02:31and I was able to, like, be a part more so of that,
02:34and going to those appointments and staying during those admissions,
02:37and seeing the relationships that she was building with her nurses,
02:40it made me want to be one of them.
02:43I wanted to be a nurse, and I wanted to be a nurse at Children's Health Care,
02:46and I wanted to be a nurse in the Aflac Disorder Center,
02:50and I wanted to make a difference.
02:52And then in Ansley's passing, I found that drive even more so.
02:57Like, I want to make such a difference.
03:00I want to save these kids' lives.
03:02I want to do the research.
03:03I want to help in all of the different avenues.
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