Kaylee Wan
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Not many people even realize it exists, and I consider that an innocent blessing—because it usually means they haven’t had a child, or known a child, diagnosed with cancer.
Kaylee was diagnosed on June 19, 2023–a date we will never forget. Leading up to that day, she had been limping and complaining of soreness and pain, which her doctors initially thought was just muscle strain from her dancer and theater activities. But they were wrong. A traumatic fall turned into a broken femur, which led to a biopsy.
As my husband and I sat in the waiting room, we clung to denial, thinking, “It’s nothing—just a broken bone. Not our child.” But then we were told it was an aggressive tumor, later identified as osteosarcoma. In that moment, my husband and I broke down in tears, overwhelmed by the reality of what our family was facing.
With osteosarcoma, Kaylee underwent eight months of intensive chemotherapy—the first three months confined to a hospital bed in traction—and then she received rotationplasty surgery, a procedure in which part of her leg was surgically removed and her lower leg was rotated and reattached to function as a knee joint. She was finally able to go home in September, continued her treatment as an in- and outpatient, and rang her end-of-treatment bell in February 2024.
Now, she’s on her second prosthetic leg, living and thriving as a 6th grader.
We have made it our mission to support other families navigating childhood cancer and to help raise awareness so no one has to face it alone. The Peter T. Foundation has been an incredible support to our family and countless other cancer families, providing resources, encouragement, and hope when it’s needed most.