SPRINGDALE, Ark. — According to the American Cancer Society, over 1,000 kids under the age of 15 die of cancer every year. It’s a number that is too high and that Susan Adamson Ray is trying to change.
“She was sassy, and that's if you talk to people, that's pretty much the first word that comes out of their mouth to describe her. She was precocious. She was had never met a stranger. She never met an animal that she didn't like and that did not love her,” Ray said.
She remembers the day their lives changed forever.
“Avery was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, the second most prevalent form of bone cancer among children, when she was three,” Ray said.
The pain in Asher’s leg — the only reason Susan even took her to the doctor — ended up being a tumor that metastasized to her lungs.
“I remember going into that office and sitting in the waiting room and just thinking to myself, 'I'm about to find out my kid has cancer,' and I just knew it was coming,” she said.
For the next few months, Asher Ray, also known as "Bit," underwent chemotherapy.
“She could help make decisions about her health, about the care and her treatment and what she wanted, and very much what she did not want, and she was a ray of sunshine,” Ray said.
Fourteen rounds of chemo later, she was declared cancer free.
“Then she relapsed, we knew at that point that her odds of seeing her 10th birthday were slim,” Ray said.
But instead of getting down at that point, the Ray family decided to live life to the fullest and letting Asher do things normal kids would do.
“She took dance. She liked dance. She was starting to get into archery in her older years, her dad got her a bow and arrow, and they would be in the backyard shooting the bow and arrow. She was a princess to Maggie Benton, who was Miss Arkansas in 2017,” Ray said.
Asher Brooklyn Ray lived every day like it was her last in her sweet nine years of life. She had an army of support behind her.
In the good and hard times, friends, families, and even strangers could keep up with the Ray family’s journey through their Facebook page The Brooklyn project. The page would pave the way for a foundation, with the goal of raising funds to help kids just like Bit.
“We have given $538,000 today to Arkansas Children's Hospital, and our money goes directly to the innovative therapeutics program, which is the research leg at Arkansas Children's Hospital. And she was the first patient in that program,” Ray said.
Her family now uses the foundation to honor her life and memory.
“And it's amazing to me, the people that still come to me and say, 'I followed her story' and 'We've prayed for you,' and 'We now have this kid who's got this certain type of cancer, and we tell them your story,' and there's this ripple effect,” Ray said.
The Ray family doesn’t plan for that effect to stop anytime soon.
The Rays recently got a call from a doctor at Arkansas Children’s Hospital saying that the money they had donated helped to fund a new drug for kids fighting cancer right here in Arkansas.
If you want to help be a part of their mission you can give at the Brooklyn Project Facebook page.
The organization is also having a benefit event Monday at Woodstone Pizza in Fayetteville — It’s called Bit's Pie in the Sky.
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