LUBBOCK, Texas — A 4-year-old little girl was the star of the show Tuesday at the Joe Arrington Cancer Research and Treatment Center.
Baylor Buckner got to ring the bell, marking the end of her two-year battle with cancer. The Buckner family lives in Shallowater, and Baylor’s parents, Luke and Shayna said it hasn’t been an easy road for the little girl with Trisomy 21.
Shayna said Baylor was diagnosed in July of 2020 after showing several symptoms of a fever and acting like she was in pain. However, she never expected it would turn into what it did.
After discovering petechiae all over her body shortly after, she knew something was wrong.
“I had a gut feeling, so we took her to the ER and they drew blood and diagnosed her within 45 minutes,” she explained.
Turns out, Baylor would be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Baylor’s dad Luke, added, “Anytime you get a cancer diagnosis, I feel like it’s a challenge and just changing up your everyday lifestyle.”
But they said Baylor never wavered over these last two years in her fight.
“I think a blessing and a curse that she’s nonverbal. So, to me the hardest part was seeing her sick, and she can’t really tell us how she feels,” Shayna said, “That girl, she is so tough.” Luke added that doctors said patients with down syndrome actually handle chemo better than those who don’t have down syndrome. “It was actually a blessing for that part,” he said.
To them, the long road to get to this point was all worth it.
“It’s indescribable how amazing it feels that we are kind of at the finish line of all this,” he added.
