This is such a SAD story, but SO inspirational!
No matter how good somebody’s insurance is or how good of a job someone may have, nobody ever budgets for cancer.
After Katie and Wiley Reed‘s 5-year-old son Aiden was diagnosed with leukemia just 12 days after they had their second child, they nearly had to sell the house to pay for expenses associated with his illness.
Katie had no idea how unbelievably high the cost of leukemia is, even with her husbands great job with great benefits, saying:
“If I were to see this story, I would think to myself, ‘These people have insurance. What are they talking about?’ “
Devastated at the thought of selling their home, Katie fell down in tears while at the hospital when she heard that her sister had sold 2,000 of Aidan’s monster drawings for $12 each.
The boys aunt, Mandi Ostein, thought of the idea while trying to think of a way to help from afar when she looked in her own newborn son’s nursery where a few of Aidan’s drawings decorated the room.
She set up a shop on Etsy.com called “Aidan’s Monsters” and by thanksgiving she sold over 7,000 of her nephew’s drawings and had a new full-time job.
“I print, package, ship and answer e-mails from home,” she says. “Upstairs is the printing department, downstairs is the shipping department, and wherever I am is the PR department.”
As for little Aidan, he’s still drawing monsters, sometimes for hours a day in the hospital.
He’s even asked Santa for a four-faced clown mask he saw online for Christmas.
His mother thinks he enjoys drawing monsters so much “because he’s fighting a monster inside himself.”
Our eyes are totally tearing up as we read this!
Can somebody please turn this into a movie, like, now?
This is one of the most inspirational stories we’ve ever heard!
We wish the best of luck to the Reeds and of course, Aidan, as he continues his battle against the devastating illness.
Click here to check out his artwork and help him fight for his life.
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