By Julianna Cockrell and Emily Miller

REXBURG—Emily Walsh of Rexburg wanted to do something to help her nephew, Seth, 6, who has been battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia since Dec. 2018. 

Since Sept. 1, Walsh has been running to reach her goal of 50 miles by the end of the month as part of a fundraiser for childhood cancer research through the American Cancer Society. At press time, she had one 5-mile run to go. 

Seth had just been put on palliative care when Emily found an advertisement for the fundraiser on Facebook. Not a stranger to running, this was something she could do. 

“I can’t do much but I can run,” she said.

Although she’s been a consistent runner for years, in recent months, Emily hasn’t been running that much. 

“This was actually a little bit of a stretch for me, just from where I was,” she says. “It definitely has pushed me to run more, but it’s been a good push too.” 

She typically runs between 4-6 miles at a time, and only counts the distance she makes while running. If she walks, it doesn’t count toward her miles. 

While Emily puts in the running miles, her Facebook fundraiser collects monetary donations for cancer research. The American Cancer Society created the 50 Mile Run in September to honor Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The money from this fundraiser goes toward research specific to pediatric cancer.

Emily said, paraphrasing her sister-in-law, “research is really the only thing that could possibly save his life. There’s nothing else that they know of that they can do to help him. So if this money is all going towards cancer research, that’s really ultimately the only thing that can help him.”

Since his initial diagnosis, Seth has undergone two bone marrow transplants and two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. According to the American Cancer Society, CAR-T therapy is a way to get immune cells called T cells (a type of white blood cell) to fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells. 

Seth was 4 years old when he was diagnosed, and has relapsed four times in the almost-three years since. He is now in remission for the fifth time. Walsh says that although it has been a trying time for the whole family, there has been a lot of good to come from the experience, as well. 

“It’s amazing the amount of good you see in others,” she says. “They (Seth’s family) live in Kentucky, and their whole community has really rallied around them with fundraisers, meals, landscaping help, you name it.”

Walsh says Seth and his family have weathered his illness with as much grace as possible. 

“Cancer treatment is so, so hard on a family,” she says. “Because he’s so young, he’s needed a parent with him almost all of the time during the months he’s been in the hospital. His parents have been amazing at the juggling, and grandparents, aunts, and uncles have taken turns helping with the other boys when needed, too.”

Walsh says Seth has taken the illness in stride, often being the one to cheer his family up when things are hard. 

“He has been such a trooper through everything,” she says. “He often tries to cheer up his mom when they get news that’s hard to hear. He loves his medical team, and can often be found having dance parties with the nurses or squirting the doctors with water guns.”

Emily’s fundraiser is nearing its end, but there’s still time to donate! Help Emily and Seth in the fight against childhood cancer by visiting her Facebook page. Click here to go to the fundraiser.

See rexburgcommons.com for more local news and events.