Sailor Parker, of Seguin, turned 6 Monday. She has been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since October 2018, KSAT reported.
“I was stationed in San Angelo at the time, and they didn’t have the resources to treat Sailor,” Sailor's father, Aaron Parker, told the television station.
Sailor is raising money to benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. one of the leading fundraising organizations for pediatric cancer research in the United States and Canada. According to its website, the organization has raised more than $150 million.
"It is overwhelming when you get this kind of diagnosis," Sailor's mother, Megan Parker, told KSAT. "So through this, we learned a lot, and because Sailor hasn't been able to play with children for about eight months now, we decided to do a lemonade stand to boost her morale. So what better thing to do than to put those proceeds to something that has been helpful and meaningful to us?"
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Sailor is close to raising enough money to fund six hours of cancer research, KSAT reported. Seguin Police Department officials heard about her efforts and gave the family tickets to their annual Cinderella Ball, the television station reported.
"I just thought, 'This is awesome!' They even got her a dress to go with it," Aaron Parker told KSAT. "She was really excited because she was going to be with other kids. We were practicing our dance moves and not knowing what the music was going to be like. We had a surprise when we got there. We were practicing fancy ball music type of dances, and then there was country and R&B and stuff, so we had to adapt. It was fun, though. I didn't know, months ago, that I would be able to do something like this with her, so I was grateful for this experience."
Sailor hopes to be a chef when she grows up.
"I want to make every food in the whole entire world, but it would be tiring to make every single different food every different day," Sailor told KSAT.
Sailor is expected to recover by 2021, her parents said. Until then, they said the one thing they learned was the ability to depend on others for help and support.
"Leaning on family, friends or your community is not a weakness," Megan Parker told KSAT. "You know the expression, 'It takes a village.' Well, it takes a village to get through something as traumatic as this."
A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help defray Sailor's medical bills.
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