A 3-year-old Gilroy boy has been presented with a resolution by
the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors supporting his battle
with neuroblastoma – a rare type of childhood cancer that is mostly
diagnosed in toddlers.
County Supervisor Liz Kniss, chair of the board’s health and
hospital committee, presented Ty Murray with the proclamation in
conjunction with September being National Childhood Cancer
Awareness Month.
A 3-year-old Gilroy boy has been presented with a resolution by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors supporting his battle with neuroblastoma – a rare type of childhood cancer that is mostly diagnosed in toddlers.
County Supervisor Liz Kniss, chair of the board’s health and hospital committee, presented Ty Murray with the proclamation in conjunction with September being National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Parents Carmen and Scott Murray held a fundraiser Saturday at Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, raising approximately $15,000 to find a cure for the disease.
Carmen, a county deputy probation officer, and Scott a supervising probation officer, have spent the past two years helping their son fight the disease. Ty also spends a lot of time in Hollister, where his grandparents and extended family live. He stays with them often when his parents are working.
“I commend the Murrays on their courage and strength as they fight for their son’s life, and their ongoing efforts to raise awareness about childhood cancer,” Kniss said in a press release. “Childhood cancer is devastating to families and we need to shine light on the struggles families face and the need for a cure.”
Diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma at 16-months-old, Ty now goes to New York once a month as part of his treatment.
Neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that starts in some types of primitive nerve cells found in embryos and fetuses. The tumors start in the sympathetic nervous system.
Since the diagnosis, Ty has undergone an aggressive treatment plan. He has endured radiation, high-dose chemotherapy, a stem-cell transplant and is now part of a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Doctors said there was no evidence of the cancer in April, but his parents are still hopefully cautious.
“One of the other kids just relapsed after 20 months,” Carmen said earlier in September. “We saw him two weeks before and he was fine. You couldn’t tell.”
Carmen mentioned another boy who went through the stem-cell transplant with Ty and had no evidence of the disease. He died in July.
“We’ve met so many families. We know so many kids who have died,” she said.
