Björn Roth, 2, is currently battling Leukemia.
JadeRoth , 6, and Björn Roth, 2, are seen in the hospital during Björn’s treatment. Jade shaved her head in solidarity with her brother, after he began losing his hair from chemotherapy treatments.
When her little brother started losing his hair from chemotherapy, 6-year-old Jade shaved her head in solidarity.
“He is my best friend and I love him most,” Amy Roth remembered her daughter saying. “I’ll go bald with him so he isn’t alone.”
Over the summer, Napavine couple Amy and David Roth’s son, Björn, was diagnosed with cancer at 2 years old. Björn has B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), which is a cancer that affects certain cells in the immune system. He is about to head to Seattle Children’s Hospital for a chimeric antigen receptor study (CAR-T trial).
Seattle Children’s hospital offers several clinical trials for the new treatment, which involves boosting the immune system to fight cancer. According to the hospital, in April 2017 doctors published a study that showed 93 percent of children with relapsed ALL achieved remission with a clinical trial using the therapy.
Amy Roth said “Björn” is a traditional Icelandic and Norwegian name that means “bear,” and that her son has always been tough.
“It’s really important to remember that even after people are diagnosed with cancer, they are still people,” Amy Roth said. “Björn has been an incredibly independent little boy. He was walking at seven months old. I can’t say enough good things about my son. He’s just a little man. … I think it’s important to show people that cancer patients are still the same people they were before they were sick.”
Until a month before Björn was diagnosed, the family said they saw no signs that he was sick. A few weeks before they learned, his parents took him to Centralia hospital after his mom noticed a strange lump on his elbow and bruises. Björn’s physician later noticed his blood cell count was off.
“You couldn’t tell anything — that was the crazy part about all of this,” Amy Roth said. “He was bigger than all of his peers. … Wherever Björn went, his little buddies would follow and he would help people up. He was never sick. We have our own eggs, our own beef, the kids eat vegetables. There were no signs until about a month before he was diagnosed.”
Since Björn was diagnosed over the summer, Evie Leef — David Roth’s aunt — has organized a fundraiser at Applebee’s, made t-shirts and bracelets to raise money for the family and set up a gofundme page for the family.
“David has always been a big part of my life, even when he was little,” Leef said. “… He and his mom lived with me for a while in Olympia and they ended up moving to Napavine four or five years ago.”
Leef said that although the entire family is worried for Björn, Jade is especially concerned.
“Over the summer, she had her head shaved because her baby brother started losing all of his hair,” Leef said. “She’s a brave girl. … She loves her baby brother and she’s scared, too. She has had some pretty tough conversations with Amy’s mom. She is afraid she is going to lose her brother.”
The 100-day trial period at Seattle Children’s Hospital is following induction therapy, the initial chemotherapy treatment that is designed to bring about a remission.
“This was the hard part — we failed induction,” Amy Roth said. “They didn’t want to say there was no hope. They wanted to try … something where they hit them really hard with a high dose of chemotherapy … he is on about seven or eight different types of chemotherapy. They were hoping to get his Leukemia down at the end of 69 days. … They checked and the Leukemia had become immune to the chemotherapy they were giving him.”
Leef said that since the Roths are humble, she has had to set up most of the fundraisers without their knowledge, and before asking them.
“They are just an all-around great family,” Leef said. “... They spent their whole summer at the hospital taking care of their baby that just turned 2 — no signs. They said when they got to the hospital and did all the tests that Björn had had leukemia for eight or nine months. It was nothing that Amy or David could have seen — there were no signs.”
Amy Roth said that she didn’t originally know that her family set up the gofundme page. She said her family is currently working out how to stay together over the 100-day trial period.
“Cancer is very expensive,” Amy Roth said. “It’s going to go toward medical bills which are very costly. It’s going to go toward staying close to Björn so that he’s not alone in treatment.”
To donate to the gofundmepage, visit https://www.gofundme.com/battle-leukemia-with-bjorn.
