When your child is diagnosed with cancer, the ground drops out from under you. One day you’re chasing them around the yard or reminding them to put their shoes on; the next, you’re googling medical terms, staring at lab results, and bracing yourself for conversations no parent ever wants to have.

That’s where Bryan and his family found themselves in August 2020, when his son Sylas, just two and a half years old, was diagnosed with B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (BL-ALL).

At first, the prognosis seemed like something to cling to. BL-ALL is considered one of the most treatable childhood cancers. But only a few months into treatment, Sylas relapsed, this time in his spinal fluid.

From there, their journey became a cycle of treatments, recoveries, and setbacks:

• A CNS relapse that led to CAR-T immunotherapy.
  

• A year and a half of remission before cancer showed up again, discovered during what was supposed to be a routine dermatology visit.
  

• A bone marrow transplant that carried not just hope, but fears about complications and long-term side effects.

Now, at about 150 days post-transplant, Sylas is once again playful, active, and eating well. But every follow-up scan still carries the weight of what the family has endured.

Parenting Through Cancer

Bryan often describes the experience as “bittersweet.” When Sylas was first diagnosed, he was too young to fully express his pain, but also too young to remember some of the hardest days. As he’s grown, he can now say things like, “My stomach hurts,” which once helped doctors catch a kidney issue early. But it also means having to put something as heavy as cancer into words their young son can begin to grasp.

Even through treatment, they’ve tried to give Sylas as normal a childhood as possible. “We’re still raising him to be a functional adult,” Bryan says. “Cancer isn’t a free pass for bad habits.”

He thinks of life in “benchmarks”: diagnosis, first remission, relapse, new treatment, transplant. Each stage brings a different kind of fear. Each test comes with dread before, and relief after until the next one arrives.

The reality, Bryan admits, is harsher than most people want to imagine. Pediatric cancer isn’t just about fighting the disease. It’s about holding your child through long stretches of suffering, all while living with the constant possibility of loss.

Finding the InVINCEable Foundation

Bryan first learned about the InVINCEable Foundation through a hospital social worker. A phone call from Scott, the foundation’s founder, quickly turned into a connection that’s lasted for years.

“It wasn’t just a one-and-done thing,” Bryan says. “Scott calls. He checks in. He remembers the details. That’s rare.”

For Bryan and his family, the support has been both emotional and practical. Sometimes it means paying a bill so they can focus on Sylas instead of the stack of mail. Sometimes it’s starting a college savings plan as a reminder that there’s still a future to plan for. Sometimes it’s simply picking up the phone when a parent needs someone who gets it.

Always, it’s about making the load a little lighter so parents can take a breath, even for just a minute.

Why Community Matters

Not every cancer group resonates with Bryan. He’s careful about who Sylas spends time with, wanting him to see survivor stories and examples of people who’ve come out the other side. For Bryan, those stories are proof that life beyond cancer is possible, and that’s the kind of hope he wants surrounding his son.

That’s also why the InVINCEable Foundation stands out. It isn’t just about financial relief, it’s about creating a genuine community of people who will walk alongside you without needing everything explained.