MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — After weeks of cancer treatment, 9-year-old Caleb Lawalin is finally back home with family where he received a big surprise Friday.
Caleb has been battling stage 3 brain cancer for almost a year. It started when Caleb's mom, Darcie Lawalin, noticed he was growing extremely fast and was developing a lot of acne.
She took him to a pediatrician who ran tests before sending him to Riley Hospital for Children. Doctors there sent him to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.
Tests revealed a metastatic tumor in Caleb's pituitary gland, a small, bean-shaped gland at the base of the brain. His cancer is considered the rarest of the rare. In fact, St. Jude's has never treated it before.
When Caleb started to lose his hair during treatment last week, his Aunt Shonna Flynn made a post on Facebook asking people to send him hats.
“I told my husband we are going to get him some hats. I said, ‘wouldn’t it be great if I got him 25 hats.' He told me to go ahead and buy three and by the next morning, I didn’t need to,” Flynn said.
The post went viral and Caleb now has more than 2,000 hats.
But people weren’t done helping.
“We said 'it looks like he is getting a lot of hats. What is something else he really wants? She said he asked the Easter Bunny for a four-wheeler,'” said Catherine Hannel-Bryant, the owner of Royalty Detail LLC. in Martinsville.
That wish to came true Friday, thanks to the generosity of people in the community.
“We had no idea when leaving Memphis this morning that this would be the case,” said Caleb’s mom.
Martinsville police, firefighters and Morgan County sheriff's deputies came out to meet Caleb. Even the Indiana State Police brought a helicopter. Owners of a local Kona Ice truck also stopped by to give out free snow cones.
“This just makes you smile and this puts your life in perspective and makes you understand that what we go through is nothing compared to what Caleb and his family is going through. So, if we can give them a little bit of a smile, make him have a great day, we are all about that,” said Morgan County Sheriff Rich Myers.
Between the hats and Friday’s homecoming surprise, Caleb's family says he has been smiling nonstop.
“This last week, he hasn’t even thought about treatment. He hasn’t thought about him having cancer. He is just having fun. He is a 9-year-old boy, that’s what he should be doing,” Flynn said.
As Caleb’s hat collection grows, his family is now asking people to donate to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Caleb’s name.
Caleb will be home for the next six weeks as he recovers from the radiation treatment. They will then go back to Tennessee to see how the treatments worked.