Sully is home.
After 20 months of battling ependymoma — a rare and aggressive brain cancer — the fierce five-year-old is now surrounded not by hospital walls, but by the warmth of family, familiar rooms, and the people who love her most.
Her journey has been marked by surgeries, intensive treatments, and challenges no child should ever have to face. Yet through it all, Sully has held onto the very things that make her unmistakably her — the sass, the spark, and a sense of humor that lights up a room the second she rolls in.
Now receiving hospice care, her family has spent the last three months focusing on what matters most: moments.
Moments like midnight cupcake cravings.
Moments like impromptu ballet performances in the living room.
Moments like cruising through the neighborhood on her motorized three-wheeler, wind brushing her hair.
Moments curled up beside her beloved pup, Thomas Oatmeal.
Moments when a perfectly timed joke sends the entire room into laughter.
Her body is tired. That much is visible.
But her spirit? Still fierce.
Ependymoma is a complex and difficult pediatric brain tumor, often requiring surgery, radiation, and other aggressive therapies. Even with treatment, recurrence can occur, and options may become limited. Hospice care, in cases like Sully’s, does not mean giving up. It means shifting the focus — from curing to comforting, from fighting disease to embracing quality of life.
And in that space, Sully continues to surprise everyone.
Courage doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes it giggles.
Sometimes it twirls.
Sometimes it asks for cupcakes at midnight.
Sometimes it simply chooses joy — even when the world feels heavy.
Her family continues to pray for more beautiful days. More laughter echoing through the house. More light spilling into the spaces where fear once lived.
Children like Sully deserve breakthroughs. They deserve expanded research, innovative treatments, and futures filled with possibility. They deserve a world where “incurable” is not the final chapter.
Tonight, we honor her strength — not just in the battles she has fought, but in the joy she still creates.
And we stand with every family hoping for better treatments, better outcomes, and more tomorrows. 💛
