A 7-year-old boy who spent two years growing his hair so he can help make wigs for children with cancer was recently diagnosed with metastatic cancer.
Several weeks ago, Vinny Desautels from Roseville, California, donated 13 inches of his own hair to Wigs for Kids. Sadly, Vinny received his own cancer diagnosis - an unknown type of metastatic cancer that has spread from his knee to his eye.
According to the GoFundMe page created by his grandparents, Vinny had complained about a pain in his knee. His parents, Jason and Amanda, noticed that Vinny had a lump on his right hip.
Doctors identified a large growth on Vinny's iliac bone. His parents also took him to an eye doctor to check out the persistent swelling on one of his eyes.
They initially thought it was just allergies but the doctors speculated that the lump on his hip and the swollen eye might be connected. As it turned out, Vinny also has a malignant and aggressive mass behind the swollen eye.
"Basically, what they found is that he has a significant growth on his hip and in the bone around the eye and behind the nose and on the cheek on the right side," said his father, Jason.
Vinny was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Doctors are still conducting tests to identify the type of cancer. His grandparents, Sue and Ron Desautels (Nana and Pepere) created the GoFundMe page to help the family with the expenses.
"Over the next days, weeks and months ahead they will need to be at countless doctor appointments, hospital stays and surgeries," wrote his grandfather Ron on the fund-raising page. Ron added that Vinny's father is a combat veteran while his mother is currently pregnant.
His grandparents added that their young grandson is taking the cancer diagnosis and the tests like a "brave little turd" and that he is fighting a battle that "no child should have to fight."
Vinny is currently a second-grader. His grandparents described him as a tender-hearted and loving child who wanted to help children with cancer. And now, Vinny is fighting the battle against disease himself.
