COLUMBIA, S.C. — September is childhood cancer awareness month and there's a brave boy right here in the Midlands who is currently battling this horrible disease.
According to the American Cancer Society, there are about 750 new cases of neuroblastoma each year in the United States. It's a type of cancer most common in children one to two years old.
It's also the kind of cancer Faheem Hamm is battling right here in Columbia.
His mother, Courtney McCullough, tells News 19 this all started right before he turned two years old. Faheem was having fevers every month for a span of five days, and doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. In October 2021, Faheem collapsed and was taken to the emergency room.
"That's when they found a grapefruit side tumor that was in his left side of his stomach, pushing his kidney down into his stomach, and it was also leaning on his spleen," McCullough, Faheem's mother said.
Since then, it's been rounds of chemotherapy, the tumor removal, stem cell transplants, radiation and now amino therapy.
"It's breaking down his immune system and they're giving him white blood cells to build his immune system back up. It's targeting all the bad cancer cells in his body and basically cleaning all of them out of his body and he has to rebuild all of them back," McCullough said.
Faheem's mom explains her son has been a trooper through it all.
"His name Faheem, it actually means kind and intelligent and he has just so many manners. He says no ma'am, yes ma'am, he's thanking for every single thing always, so he's just so mannerable and polite. In our family, we call him our ultimate warrior," McCullough said.
She also wants to share with other families that they're not alone in this battle against childhood cancer.
"I definitely just wanted to get his story out there because there's a lot of children being diagnosed with cancer and I really wanted to be an advocate for other mothers that need someone to talk to, or to know the avenues and ways to get around, just being comfortable in a hospital, if they need anything," McCullough said.
Courtney explains that a PRISMA-founded support group called momcology has helped her share stories with other mothers who have children with cancer.
Faheem's mother tells News 19 they'll hopefully be done with all his treatments in February 2023.