Gresh & Keefe - Reylyn Boucher (13) talks about her fight with B lymphoblastic lymphoma, Reylen is with her mother Angela, stepfather, Stephane and brother, Colsin

Over a couple of months, Reylyn's family noticed she couldn't smile. The pediatrician sent her to an oral surgeon who thought it could have been an abscess from just getting her braces on and didn’t see anything concerning. They sent her to an ENT where they did a CT scan and noticed a growth in her sinus pocket around her eye socket. In order to get a correct diagnosis, she needed to have her braces removed to get an MRI which then showed the tumor. Reylyn was diagnosed in September 2020 with B lymphoblastic lymphoma. She was admitted to the hospital at the end of September 2020 for about 25 days for the induction phase which include very heavy doses of steroids which broke down her tumor along with chemotherapy. She endured sickness from this treatment and lost  her hair. But her spirit to fight this shined through and she went home in the middle of October. Since then she has been doing weekly outpatient chemotherapy in the Jimmy Fund Clinic on Thursdays along with lumbar punctures every 9 weeks to prevent any type of spreading of this disease. This outpatient treatment will conclude in October 2022. Reylyn loves to read, watch movies, make Tik Tok videos, and especially loves to hang out with her best friends Tegan and Ava. She also enjoys cooking and baking. Reylyn attends North Attleboro Middle School in North Attleboro and is going into the 8th grade. Dana-Farber has helped the family to realize that they are not alone through this journey. They have made so many great friends within the nursing team at Jimmy Fund Clinic along with other patients that they see weekly and consider all of them not just friends but family.  The resource room staff are always there to make Reylyn smile and they either play games or do crafts to pass the time away while either waiting for or receiving treatment every week. Dana-Farber has also helped the family when they were in a financial bind. Angela lost her job when Reylyn was diagnosed as she had to go stay at the hospital and care for Reylyn.   All the Jimmy Fund Clinic staff has incredibly kind and caring and supportive through this trying time that their family is going through. The staff has really made the family made feel like everything will be ok. It takes a lot of pressure off the family knowing how much support they have from the Jimmy Fund Clinic.