Meet Libby & Ella

Sisters Libby & Ella are cancer survivors! They both inherited a genetic disorder that causes retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eye. It most often affects infants and very young children. Libby, their older daughter ended up with a very rare form of the disease called tri-lateral retinoblastoma. It meant that she had tumors in both eyes and one growing in the pineal gland in the center of her brain. It is a terminal version of retinoblastoma and Libby was given a less than 2% chance to survive. Many surgeries, the loss of an eye, many rounds of chemo, a bone marrow transplant, many rounds of intrathecal chemo and a miracle later... Libby beat the odds and survived! She is now a happy, healthy, almost 9 year old! Her little sister is also a special case. Ella was diagnosed in-utero when mom was 30 weeks along with her. Her eye tumors were so large that they could see them on ultrasound. They induced and had her at 31 weeks. She was 4 pounds when she started chemo at 2 days old. Ella also went through many rounds of chemo and lost an eye. She did not have a brain tumor and her life was not in nearly as much danger as Libby's, but her eye cancer was more severe and Ella is legally blind. But she is spunky and beautiful and she loves to sing... and she is celebrating 5 years cancer-free this month!!
Images by: https://www.facebook.com/lisahundermanphotography?fref=ts