Season to Share: Courageous boy fights aggressive brain cancer as family struggles
Caedyn Jynella is a spunky, curious 5-year-old boy who loves to play with his brothers and his dog Zeus, sometimes in superhero costumes, and dreams of becoming a police officer when he grows up.
That he can grow up happy and healthy is his mother’s greatest wish.
The boy is stricken with an aggressive form of brain cancer. A large tumor presses against his optic nerve, causing blindness in his left eye. The tumor also causes his legs to drag sometimes and sets off severe headaches and fatigue, according to the Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope, the nonprofit agency that nominated the boy and his family for the Season to Share drive.
Caedyn was 1 year old when doctors found the surgically inoperable tumor in his brain after he developed rapid, uncontrolled eye movements.
“I thought maybe it was a vitamin deficiency or ear infection, but his primary care doctor said, ‘He needs an MRI because it could be a brain tumor,’” said Caedyn’s mom Jessica Fairbanks.
When doctors showed her the size of the tumor, it was as if “the rug was pulled from under me,” she said.
Season to Share 2023 nominees: Help your Palm Beach County neighbors in need
She is a single mother raising Caedyn and his two older brothers, Gavin, 9, and Keenan, 6, in a Riviera Beach townhome. To support them and help pay for Caedyn’s medical bills, she works as a case manager for a local nonprofit and relies on the kindness of friends and the community.
One friend started a Go Fund Me page to help Fairbanks with expenses. That campaign has raised close to $23,000 of its $25,000 goal.
Caedyn endures regular cancer treatments, taking an anti-cancer drug by mouth daily and traveling to Miami for cancer-fighting infusions and doctor visits. So far, the treatments have served to keep the tumor stable.
“The size of it hasn’t shrunk that much,” Fairbanks said.
The boy has faced his treatments with the courage of a first responder, even sometimes wearing his police officer uniform to his chemo visits and pretending to arrest the nurses and doctors.
His daily struggle against the effects of the tumor requires such first-responder courage. He’ll try to run, even if it hurts to walk, says his mom. But sometimes he simply has to ask for help.
That’s when his brothers come to the rescue, offering piggyback rides.
“He tells me his legs hurt and he can’t walk, and he has me carry him,” said Fairbanks, 41. “That’s where the piggybacks have come in lately.”
The family attends weekly therapy sessions provided by a local cancer foundation.
“We’re all going through it right now. We’ve been in survival mode for a while,” she said.
At home, she says she strives for a sense of normalcy, even though Caedyn’s condition requires a tremendous amount of care.
“I want him to have every child experience his brothers have,” Fairbanks said.
Her brave boy surprises her every day, she said.
“His perseverance is amazing. He gets up every day and goes to school and does the best he can,” she said. “He’s a little fighter.”
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Caedyn Jynella's Wish
Caedyn Jynella, a 5-year-old Riviera Beach boy fighting an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor, has been enduring cancer treatments for close to four years. Burdened with medical and related expenses, his mother, a single woman raising three boys, has sought the community’s help via an online fundraising site and other efforts. The family needs money for transportation, utilities, food and to pay the mortgage. They would benefit from a variety of gift cards. Caedyn loves superheroes and would enjoy any related toys and costumes.
Nominating agency: Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope, Palm Beach
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Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Charity: Palm Beach County boy with cancer needs your help, donation
