Meet Khamoni – Cat Country’s St. Jude Patient of the Month

Little Khamoni has a big smile!  She is Cat Country's St. Jude Patient of the Month!

Khamoni
5 years old
Diagnosis:

Khamoni has been fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia since May 2013.

Khamoni's story:

Brittney knew of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, but she never thought she’d need it. She’d seen programming about St. Jude on television, and sometimes it would make her cry. “I didn’t know what I would do if my child was in that situation,” Brittney says.

Then, in May 2013, her daughter Khamoni fell and was unable to stand back up. That night, Khamoni was kept awake by pain. “She had never cried like that before, so I knew something was wrong,” says Brittney.

Brittney took Khamoni to the hospital several times before an abnormality was found in her bloodwork. Khamoni was then sent to St. Jude, where she was found to suffer from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “I just started crying,” says Brittney. “I thought it was something she couldn’t survive.”

But the staff at St. Jude talked with Brittney and eased her fears. “They explained what was going on and how the kids with her type of cancer are doing better than they were before,” she says. In fact, St. Jude has increased the survival rates for acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 4 percent before opening in 1962 to 94 percent today.

At St. Jude, Khamoni was placed on a three-year course of chemotherapy. Now 5 years old, she is almost halfway done with cancer treatment. Khamoni just started kindergarten and is really excited about learning to read. She even enjoys her visits to the hospital. “My daughter loves going to St. Jude just to play,” says Brittney. “She is enjoying life.”