4-month-old girl beats brain cancer and rings the bell

Lillian Grace Borden was born on Sept. 5, 2019. She was a beautiful, and seemingly healthy, baby girl. To her parents, she was perfect.

But according to a GoFundMe by her mom and dad, the parents noticed something wasn’t quite right with baby Lily. She wasn’t moving her limbs quite right.

An MRI was then ordered and doctors spotted something on her brain stem. By then Lily’s mom says her breathing had become compromised so they sent her to NICU and placed her on a breathing tube and gastric feeding tube.

Shari Borden, her mom, says that no one had ever seen an MRI quite like this, so they consulted with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California. Lily and her mom were then flown to Oakland on a medical transport plane.

“By the time of her next MRI, just days later, the tumor was larger and now ran from her brain stem down her spinal cord to below her shoulders,” the parents said. They offered little hope—the tumor was inoperable and growing aggressively—but proceeded with a biopsy. The results indicated the tumor was an aggressive stage 3-4 malignant glioma. A tiny ray of hope existed in a recently approved targeted chemotherapy for tumors of a certain genetic makeup. But they needed to act fast if there was to be any chance of saving Lily.”

It was an aggressive tumor. Doctors said, because of its location, surgery simply wasn’t an option.

Chemotherapy was Lily’s only hope, her mom said. After a round of general chemo, her parents got the go-ahead to put her on a new, targeted kind of chemotherapy.

Three weeks later, Lily’s tumor was gone.

As of January 25, Lily rang the bell signifying that she was cancer-free!

To donate to the family’s GoFundMe, click here.