03/06/2026
Kaylyn’s Story — Summer TABOC 2026 Beneficiary
Kaylyn has spent almost half her life fighting something no kid should ever have to face. She was only twelve when she was diagnosed with refractory leukemia, and from that moment on, everything changed. While other kids were worrying about school and friends, she was learning how to survive.
Her treatment wasn’t a straight line. It was chemo, CAR T therapy, total body irradiation, and a cord blood transplant. It was chronic GVHD that affected her skin and her GI tract. It was joint damage that eventually led to replacements. It was more than 688 days spent inpatient at MD Anderson, watching birthdays and holidays pass from a hospital bed.
Her mom has been by her side through every bit of it. Every appointment, every emergency, every long night. No breaks. No backup. Just a mother doing everything she could to keep her daughter alive.
Now at twenty, Kaylyn is still dealing with the long term effects of the treatments that saved her life. Heart problems. Endocrine issues. Chronic pain. Mobility challenges. Anxiety and depression that come from years of trauma and uncertainty. Her fight didn’t end when the cancer did. It simply changed.
But she’s still here. Still pushing forward. Still trying to build a life after everything she’s been through. And this summer, she’s one of our TABOC beneficiaries as she and her mom work to rebuild after eight years of surviving one day at a time.
