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December 5, 2024 3 mins
One of our 2024 Miracle Families - the Meier Family found out their daughter Annika was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma brain tumor in June of 2021. Hear their incredible story of support from Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. 

One of the things that she loves, and this is way before her diagnosis, she just loved to help
people. We told her that we were coming for Radiothon and it just got a huge smile on her
face because she knows that mom and dad's voice, they're going to help raise money for
other kids that are fighting what she potentially has or other types of cancer or other
ailments, and that's what we're trying to do.

Donate today at: https://corewellhealth.org/foundation/west/helen-devos-childrens-hospital/radiothon
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi. My name is Mark Meyer.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
My name is Lynn Meyer.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
We are from Rockford, Michigan, and our daughter, Anika, was
diagnosed with meggioblastoma brain tumor in June of twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Annaka and body were born in two thousand and nine
and the first twelve years of life were relatively normal.
Up until diagnosis. Anaka had been sick. The headaches started
maybe two to three weeks before her diagnosis, and we
got to the point the Sunday before where we said
her body's going to shut down. We're going to lose her,

(00:37):
not realizing how close we actually weren't losing her. Finally,
an MRI was ordered and she didn't come home for
thirteen weeks. Louis Joy six Luria. The night that we

(00:58):
found out, we sat in the picky room with her
and we told her what she had and she had
a face of relief. Mom, Dad, I'll be able to
feel good again. That was how she saw it. It
wasn't a big scary monster. It was Okay, I'm going
to get this taken out and I'm going to feel better.
That's kind of the approach we've run with the entire time.

(01:22):
Right off the bat As soon as they saw the
tumor and the size of it, she was scheduled for
emergency surgery.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
We knew that we were in the right place. We
have never even considered going someplace else. We just had
a comfort. Everybody was on board, everybody was on her team.
Everybody had a just a caring side to them that
is not always found in every medical facility now, but
Helen de Vos does offer that to this day. You know,

(01:51):
we're three and a half years in. I have not
run into one person at Helen DeVos that I would
not categorize as having that truly caring, just huge hearts.
They want to make sure that she for she goes
to bed at night, that she's all comfy, cozy, make
sure that everything's just right for her so she's gonna
have a good night's sleep. It's just been when I
say fantastic experience, I've had people look at me like

(02:13):
it's how do you say that's a fantastic experience. And yes,
the experience overall is not. However, the treatment that we've
had from all those people and how much they do
care about her is why I consider that fantasy experience.
We have a world class pediatric medical facility in our backyard.
We have the best of the best.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Anica had her two year scans and those scans show
that it had occurred. When Megelo comes back, there's no cure,
so it is terminal. However, we sat in that room,
we looked at them and we talked about our options
and we said, you saved her life the first time.
This is the team that we want to take us

(02:56):
wherever this goes. This is the team that we're going
to fight with. We're home.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
One of the things that she loves, and this is
way before her diagnosis. She just loved to help people.
We told her that we were coming for radiothon and
it's just got a huge smile on her face because
she knows that mom and Dad's voice are going to
help raise money for other kids that are fighting what
she potentially has for other types of cancer or other ailments,

(03:29):
and that's what we're trying to do.
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