Shayla Marie

Age: 9 years old

Shayla Marie Addison was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma stage 3 group 3 in October 2018. Shayla was very sick and her family was taking her weekly to the doctor, trying to find out what was causing her illness. The doctors in Southern Illinois could not find out what was wrong. The family made the decision to take Shayla to Cardinal Glennon, in St. Louis, Missouri. By the time they found out what was wrong with their daughter, the tumor had affected her right eye, all of her nasal cavities to her ear, neck and upper jaw on the right side of her face and even went all the way to her skull base. On October 15th, 2018, she started a plan of forty-two weeks of chemotherapy. Shayla continues to be so strong and brave throughout her cancer journey. Also, Shayla has had twenty-eight sessions of radiation. She is such an inspiration to others as they have seen a brave and courageous nine-year-old fight a battle no child should have to fight. Shayla loves riding in Jeeps and on her side-by-side. She loves playing the online video game Fornite, Sims video game, Roblox game and watching videos on her phone. She loves making experiments as well as arts and crafts. Shayla dreams to grow up to become a scientist!