Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
AS TOUGH AS THEY GET – Danni Hill, 6-year-old from Noxon, has recently received her last chemotherapy treatment and will be honored at the Noxon basketball games this Saturday. Hill was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old. To celebrate her spirit, Noxon is asking everyone who attends the games to wear orange, the color of leukemia. She is the daughter of Ray and Cassandra Hill.
It has been over a two-year battle of valor, and Noxon's Danni Rae Hill has remained strong and persevered. She is a 6-year-old that has just received her last round of chemotherapy in efforts to kick Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood.
On January 6 Hill crossed the finish line; the last dose of chemo was administered. For the next year she will have her blood drawn monthly to be sure she is in remission. If all is clear for five years, she will officially be diagnosed as "cancer free."
"We are just taking things one day at a time," Cassandra Hill, Danni's mother said, "and I am sure the nerves and the feeling of being worried about her, like parents do, will never go away." Less than one month has passed since her last treatment, but Danni is "thriving and doing so good in school," her mother shared. "It is so good to see her energy levels back and not have to worry about the pains that go along with chemo."
In October 2016, when Danni was only 4 years old, she was diagnosed with B-cell ALL. The Hill family spent a year in Salt Lake City so Danni could receive care at Primary Children's Hospital receiving chemo treatments via mouth daily and at least once a week through her port.
After spending a year of intense treatment, Danni progressed to maintenance treatments, a less concentrated chemo plan. This allowed the family to collaborate with Community Medical Center in Missoula and return to Noxon. They visited Missoula every two weeks for treatments and every third month returned to Salt Lake City to receive spinal chemotherapy injections.
"The thing she (Danni) was least happy about was what she called 'back pokes' because she didn't get to eat for 12 hours before the procedure," Cassandra said with a light heart, wondering why this was the worst thing Danni could recall of the last two and a half years of distress.
This just goes to show the person Danni is. She is a fighter, and throughout its entirety, Danni only had two hiccups during treatments. According to Cassandra, her immune system was compromised because of the chemotherapy, and she got sick. Even so, she bounced right back and continued to fight, not letting anything get in her way.
Danni is ready to take on the world and enjoy being a kid. Her favorite activities are reading, fishing and sledding. "She's matured so much through all this and seems so grown up opposed to other kids her age," Cassandra said of her first grader, who undoubtably views the world much different than the average 6-year-old.
As Danni has touched and inspired so many lives with her tenacity and passion for life, it is fitting she should be celebrated. She has two events lined up to commemorate her.
Noxon School District will honor her at the February 2 basketball games against Hot Springs by asking all fans to wear orange. According to Choose Hope: Leukemia Cancer Awareness, orange "promotes leukemia awareness and shows strength and support for leukemia survivors and their family and friends."
The second celebration is possible through Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to making wishes come true for children with critical illnesses. Danni will be taking her mother, father (Ray), and younger brother (Ryker) to Disney World in March. "She is so excited to meet Mickey and Minnie," Cassandra said with feelings of compassion, humility and thankfulness.
"This entire time the community has been so great. We are so lucky we live here." Cassandra said reflecting on what the community has done to make the situation more manageable.
"Being away from family and friends will not be easy, but right now our primary concern is Danni's health," Cassandra wrote on her GoFundMe site while in Salt Lake City in 2016. "We have set up this (GoFundMe) page in hopes of keeping our minds a little more at ease with the medical bills to come. Any and all help will be so immensely appreciated, our family will forever be grateful of your generosity."
With everyone's support, Danni has gotten to where she is today. As promised, her family is extremely grateful for those who helped get them here and they express sincere gratitude.
The cancer Danni had is the most common type of cancer in children and in 80 to 85 percent of children with ALL, the leukemia starts in B cells, the American Cancer Society states. The disease develops in the bone marrow (the spongy center of bones where blood cells form), inhibiting healthy cell formation.
Cassandra stated that she believes that over 90 percent of kids beat this cancer; a promising statistic for Danni and other children fighting this disease.
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