Thousands Of Hats Sent To Indiana Boy With Rare Form Of Cancer

An Indiana boy must own more hats than the queen of England thanks to thousands of strangers on Facebook.

9-year-old Caleb Lawalin is from Indianapolis but was recently staying at a Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, Tennessee, while undergoing intense radiation treatment at St. Jude's Children Research Hospital.

Caleb has a metastatic tumor in the pituitary gland at the base of his brain. His cancer is so rare that this is the first time St. Jude's has ever treated it, WTHR reported.

When Caleb starting losing his hair, his aunt Shonna Flynn put out a request on Facebook for hats. Flynn got the idea because she also had cancer and receiving letters and small gifts in the mail from friends and family cheered her up, she wrote on Facebook. She thought something like that could help her nephew so she shared the address to the Ronald McDonald House.

She was originally hoping that a few friends would take part but her post has been shared more than 21,000 times.

Caleb has since received caps all kinds, cowboy hats, pirate hats, and even hats shaped like fish. He has received so many hats that an empty room at the Ronald McDonald house was being used to store all the packages he received.

“It’s really restored my faith in people. It is amazing that total strangers have reached out like this,” Darcie Lawalin told the station.

Caleb and his family returned to Indiana on Thursday after his last round of treatment.

Anyone who want to send hats or letters to Caleb and his family can mail them to:

Reba Thomas
6299 W. State Road 48
Bloomington, IN 47404

Photo: Getty Images