Kayden Peets seems like a typical 6-year-old girl.
She loves to wear pink and purple, and has a pair of tennis shoes covered in glitter that light up when she walks. She sings songs from her favorite show with very little prompting and will proudly tell anyone she meets how to spell her name.
But she’s had a difficult year.
Last spring, doctors told her mother JoAnna Peets that Kayden had leukemia. The diagnosis came after months of back pain that sometimes made it hard for her to stand up. Once she got stuck on the top of a slide during recess because of the pain.
Peets took her daughter to the emergency room often. Over and over doctors assured them that Kayden was only experiencing growing pains. A few even suggested she was seeking attention from an overly indulgent mother.
Then Kayden got a 105-degree fever and doctors discovered the cancer.
Amid the flurry of activity that followed, Kayden came up with a list of three wishes. Next week, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will grant her No. 1 wish.
Kayden and her parents will be flown to Los Angeles to meet Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel television character played by actress and singer Miley Cyrus.
The family received the unexpected, albeit welcome, news last Thursday.
“I was so excited,” Kayden said and smiled as she finished, “because I get to miss four days of school.”
The four-day trip will kick off Monday morning when a limo picks up the family from their home and takes them to the airport for their flight west.
JoAnna Peets said they are still waiting on the full itinerary, but it looks as if Kayden will be one of about 15 children who will meet Cyrus as she sets up for one of her concerts.
“I’m really scared about meeting Hannah Montana because it’s my first time,” Kayden said.
Kayden said she hopes she will get to sing her favorite song, “The Climb” with Cyrus. In an ideal world, the two would also be in a movie together, Kayden said.
As to what she will do when she meets Cyrus, Kayden thought about it a moment and then said, “I’m gonna be like, ‘Hey, Hannah! Hey, Hannah!’ I’m going to be jumping I’ll be so happy.”
The cancer isn’t the first adverse circumstance for Kayden. She was born September 16, 2004, at Eglin Regional Hospital five hours after Hurricane Ivan made landfall. Her family hopes she will make it through this trial as well.
Her hair is growing back in after chemotherapy, and she sports a pixie haircut that she insists makes people mistake her for a boy. She’s been selected as the inspirational student of the year at Florosa Elementary School and her prognosis is good.
Kayden is in the maintenance phase of the disease. That means two more years of treatments before she is moved into the remission phase, her mother said.
For now, her family is just grateful for the opportunity the foundation is giving Kayden.
“It was definitely unexpected,” JoAnna Peets said.
This little girl is just adorable and all these kids are so amazing; I'm really glad they get an opportunity like this.
Source: anythingdisney
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