Metro's mother shares her son's journey to raise awareness of child cancer | FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

KEARNEY, MB – Families and hospitals across the country are spending the month of September raising awareness for children with cancer.

Angie Smith and her son Daxton are inseparable now, but something has almost robbed them of the chance to make those memories.

"I was sitting on the carpet while he was trying to reach this important stage of the session and he would fall back or he would fall to the side," she said.

She learned in 2015 that Daxton, 9 months old, had a grape-sized tumor in her small frame. He weighed 4-1 / 2 pounds.

FOX4 introduced you to the mother and son of the metro for the first time when diagnosing Daxton. Smith posted on Facebook, seeking help for gardening work, and a nice couple stepped in and offered to take care of their lawn for the rest of the year. Families are still close today.

Over the next three years, Daxton will undergo treatments, surgeries, round trips to the hospital. For now, his analysis is clear and he does what every 3 year old should do.

But Smith did not forget his mission.

That's why she posted photos of her son on Faceboook before his surgery three years ago.

"It's not comfortable to post a picture of a child with such a big stomach," Smith said. "It's not comfortable to publish back-to-school photos as these moms have to do it from the door, and this year it's a burial place." It's not comfortable but we publish it because something has to change.

Smith believes there is no funding for cancer research in children.

"What Americans spend a year on Starbucks is what the government gives to childhood cancer," she said.

According to the pediatric hospital, cancer in children is the leading cause of death among children, but all childhood cancers together receive less than 4% of the budget of the National Institute of Health.

"There is money in all these other cancers, these cancers in adults, and they just do not do what's necessary. But, as children are the future. So, really, where should we put our money and our efforts? Smith said.

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