Community rallies around 5-year-old battling leukemia
The All Riders Motorcycle Club hosted a poker chip ride on Saturday morning in DeLand. Each motorcyclist draws a poker chip at each stop along the route but no one knows the value of each chip until the very end. When a winner is announced
By Liv Johnson
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VOLUSIA COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — Lilyana Aparicio has gone through more in her five years of life than many adults go through their whole lives.
When she was just 4 years old, she was diagnosed with a special strain of leukemia that only affects about 2% of childhood patients.
Her mother, Chrissie, says it all started with a fever that wouldn’t seem to go away.
“We went to the hospital just anticipating them saying it’s a cold, here’s some medication or an antibiotic and then send us on our way,” she said.
It was that trip to the hospital where Lilyana was diagnosed with leukemia.
“It flipped our world upside down,” Chrissie said.
For the last 10 months, Lilyana, now 5 years old, and her family have been making trips to Jacksonville for treatment.
Some visits last for just a day – others last for a month at a time.
“She caught a cold and was on the tail end of a treatment so her immune system was extremely low, so we put her in the hospital for a month – something as simple as a cold,” her father George said.
Those trips to Jacksonville and the extensive treatment is costly.
That’s why the All Riders Motorcycle Club hosted a poker chip ride on Saturday morning in DeLand.
Each motorcyclist draws a poker chip at each stop along the route but no one knows the value of each chip until the very end.
When a winner is announced, half of the pot goes to the winner and the remainder goes to Lilyana and her family.
“It tugs at your heartstrings to think that a little girl her age – I think she’s about four or five right now – is dealing with things that an older person would deal with. She’s amazing. She’s amazing. It brings tears to my eyes,” said Chuck Boehn, the vice president of the All Riders Club.
Lily’s parents say it’s Lily herself that holds the family together.
“She’s probably the strongest one of us all. She keeps us going,” Chrissie said.
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