“I believe that if we can all work together, we can cure cancer.” – Michael

The toddler meandered from his parents’ side to the surgeon’s. Reaching his tiny digits upward, he gently placed his hand in the doctor’s as if to gesture, “We can do this.” Such was the mature attitude of Michael, a 2 ½ year old diagnosed with neuroblastoma and insistent on comforting those around him, even on the precipice of his own surgery.

It was the fall of 2003 when Michael first started experiencing breathing problems. Doctors initially diagnosed it as bronchiolitis, an infection of the respiratory tract. After their third visit in a two-month span to their local pediatrician outside Denver, Lisa and her husband Jon were insistent on finally discovering the cause of his illness.

The doctor agreed to do a chest x-ray to see if he had asthma. “They found a mass between his heart and his spine, but they needed to send us to Children’s Hospital Denver for more tests,” said Lisa.

The drive across town didn’t last long, but the hospital’s waiting room certainly did. Flu ran rampant that season, sending the staff into overdrive trying to handle the flood of patients. Finally, they called Michael’s name for his CT scan. As the Loomers awaited their results, an ER doctor came by and abruptly delivered the devastating news that Michael had cancer. That left Lisa, 12 weeks pregnant with their second kid, and Jon, lingering with their young son whose life suddenly seemed in jeopardy.

Michael, ever the soothing presence, provided the encouragement in that moment.

“He kept hugging me and saying, ‘Don’t cry mama, don’t cry,’ we just fell apart for a while,” said Lisa. “The oncologist came in shortly after that and immediately told us they believe it can be taken out and he’ll be fine.”

Finally able to exhale, the Loomers learned that Michael’s breathing issues needed to be controlled before they could perform the surgery without intubating (inserting a breathing tube into his throat) him. His family managed the issue as best they could at home, but two nights before his scheduled surgery, the problems bubbled to the surface again.

“I called the office and the doctor said we needed to bring him in ahead of time to get him on oxygen and make sure that he’s in the best possible shape for surgery,” said Lisa.

The physicians agreed, with the caveat that if the problems weren’t resolved he would likely have to be intubated. Thankfully, though, an hour before the procedure the wheezing disappeared and the doctors whisked Michael into surgery.

“The surgeon could see that my husband and I were really upset, in tears, hugging,” said Lisa. “He came up and said, ‘It’s gonna be all right because I promise you that I’ll treat him like he’s my own.’ Of course that led to more tears.”

Despite their fears, the surgery was immensely successful. Michael left the operating room with just three small scars to remember it by. Only a trace of the tumor remained, but the doctors told them it should likely go away on its own. They left the hospital two days later, just in time for Thanksgiving. Michael underwent monthly tests in the aftermath to ensure the cancer was eradicated, but it never returned. By 2009, he was officially declared cancer-free.

Not long after Michael went home safely, his mom coincidentally discovered another child fighting neuroblastoma, Alex Scott.

“I was changing the newborn baby’s diaper and all of a sudden I heard neuroblastoma on ‘The Today Show,’” said Lisa. “I ran to the television and saw Alex with her parents and I knew that what we should be doing is giving back.”

The family has followed through, hosting stands annually to support the Foundation after escaping without long-term issues. At the time, the oncologist told them that only 30% of neuroblastoma cases were not the dangerous stage IV strand, but Michael’s was the less alarming stage 2B cancer. Now, he isn’t taking his gift of life for granted.

He’s targeting a lofty future, with Stanford as his current choice of where to pursue his goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. As he finishes up his junior year of high school, he remains the same mature soul he was even as a kid. That do-it-all attitude is what makes his sky-high goals seem more grounded than for most people.