Lesley Hilts and her son Mateo have been through a great deal together.  Their journey together started in a beautiful way with Lesley journeying to Guatemala to adopt Mateo.

The adoption process for Lesley was a long and arduous one. The gratifying journey finally ended with Lesley taking her son Mateo home at 11 months old.  It was 11 long months from start of adoption to completion.

Life was going on as planned with the happy little family as they were planning a big trip to visit Lesley’s dad in Niagara Falls and getting ready to celebrate Mateo’s Gotcha day (the day Mateo’s adoption was finally complete) when Mateo began not feeling well.  After taking Mateo (age 9 at this point) to an urgent care she was instructed to take him to Sacred Heart Children’s if she was not happy with the way Mateo was feeling in the next couple of days. When Mateo was still not feeling well she took him to Sacred Heart as instructed where she would hear those life altering words for the first time “Your son has Cancer”.

The struggle to raise a child during cancer treatment can be unbearable at times, add to that being a single mom and the obstacle becomes that much more challenging. As the treatment process winds down for Mateo and his mom, new fears and anxiety come into play.  The fear of not knowing what to expect and not being as connected to the hospital, this safe place that has become extended family.  After all there is comfort in getting blood draws regularly and even safety in giving your child the chemo that has kept his cancer at bay. When the day arrives that this is no longer the order of things it can be downright frightening.  We are all here for this amazing duo as Mateo begins his journey into survivorship and will be rooting for them in all life’s challenges.

If you would like to learn more about ACCOIN and what we do for families going through a Childhood Cancer diagnosis go to our website at https://www.acco.org/inlandnw/