Trenton Haynes, Neuroblastoma

11 Months Old at Diagnosis

On January 1, 2013, Jennifer and Josh Haynes’ life changed when Jennifer found a lump on the neck of their son, Trenton. She called their doctor, who assured her it was probably just a swollen lymph node, but she should bring Trenton in the next day just to be sure.

While the doctor was examining Trenton, Jennifer’s face went blank as she heard the doctor say “I think your son has cancer, you need to go to the hospital right away.”

Jennifer immediately brought Trenton to Children’s Medical Center in Plano, TX where tests were run that confirmed the pediatrician’s suspicion. Doctors found one main tumor and several smaller ones and diagnosed Trenton with Stage IV, high risk neuroblastoma. Trenton started chemotherapy and had surgery just weeks before his first birthday.

Trenton underwent 8 rounds of chemotherapy, 12 rounds of radiation, 4 surgeries, a stem cell transplant, several rounds of immunotherapy, and countless scans and hospital stays. After all of that, he was declared no evidence of disease in June 2013. Even though Trenton was declared cancer free, he continued to receive treatment due to the aggressive nature of stage IV neuroblastoma. Still, his parents were excited at how successful treatment had been. He was given an 80% chance of survival because of how well he had responded to treatment.

Exactly one year after diagnosis, January 2, 2014 while receiving immunotherapy, the right side of Trenton’s face started to paralyze. His doctors ordered an emergency CT scan to figure out what was wrong, and found that his cancer had relapsed in his brain, and that it was inoperable.

Less than 24 hours later, Trenton passed away.

The Haynes family was devastated, but wanted Trenton’s memory to live on. They had formed a team at the Dallas/Fort Worth CureSearch Walk in 2013, but only Jennifer was able to attend as Trenton was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy. This year, Jennifer wanted to make a bigger impact for children with cancer, and she and her team did just that. “Because of our experience, we want to bring awareness and raise money to fight children’s cancer,” says Jennifer. “The CureSearch Walk is the perfect way to do just that.”

On Saturday, April 26, Jennifer and hundreds of other Walkers participated in the Dallas/Fort Worth CureSearch Walk helping to raise $78,484 for children’s cancer research. Team TRENT raised $8,971, beating their original goal of $7,500!

With 60 Walks across the country, you can help families like Jennifer’s raise awareness for children’s cancer. Visit CureSearchWalk.org to sign up for a Walk near you!