Support floods in for 5-year-old Northfield girl battling leukemia

NORTHFIELD, Ohio (WJW) – A wave of support is coming in for 5-year-old Jady, a Northfield girl who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this month.

Jady’s mother, Hannah Rengers, shared their story on social media, saying their lives changed forever when her baby girl, who loves to play tee ball and perform in gymnastics, was sent home from preschool on May 1.

“Her teacher said she just wasn’t herself and was complaining of tummy pain,” Hannah Rengers said in the post.

Jady was taken to urgent care after running a high fever. At the time, medical professionals believed she just had a virus.

“Friday comes along and her symptoms were still the same but she was also becoming extremely fatigued and could not keep any food or even water down,” Rengers said in the post. “By Monday, she still had the same symptoms but did not even want to get up out of bed, so I was very concerned.”

Jady was taken to the emergency room at Akron Children’s Hospital, where she underwent blood tests, an X-ray, ultrasound and CT scan.

“I’ll never forget the doctor walking into our room telling me that we would be admitted to the hospital, saying that Jady’s white blood cell and red blood cell counts were extremely low and that she would need to receive a blood transfusion because they believed she had leukemia,” Rengers said.

After days of tests and complications, Jady was diagnosed with leukemia on May 10.

FOX 8 spoke with Rengers Thursday night, who said Jady’s chemotherapy is going well.

“We have a close knit team at Akron Children’s that have been working with us and our sweet Jady girl,” she said. “All of the nurses and doctors have been so amazing to not only Jady, but our entire family.”

Jady was scheduled for a spinal tap last Friday, but it was pushed back because she was dehydrated. Rengers said they are going back for the procedure, as well as her routine chemo treatment, this Friday.

“She is such a strong girl,” Rengers said.

Support has been flooding in for Jady since her diagnosis earlier this month. A GoFundMe page to help the family with medical expenses has raised more than $21,000.

St. Barnabas School, where Jady will start kindergarten in the fall, also stepped in to show support for the family. Students at the school held a “dress down” day to raise money for Jady.

Her mother said they’ve received so much support from family and friends, but also their church, her school, gymnastics studio, tee ball team and plenty of others in the community.

“We also had a gentleman named (Balloon Dude) who came to our house during the day we were discharged from the hospital and he decorated the whole outside of our house to put a smile on Jady’s face when she got home, and also Stan’s Bakery made personalized cookies for her,” Rengers said.

Everyone has been making sure this young but strong little girl is getting everything she needs, including plenty of SpaghettiOs.

“Everyone came together and rallied behind us,” her mom said. “We are beyond grateful for all of it.”

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