BOISE, Idaho — For most people, the typical day starts with work or school. But for 8-year-old Claire Elliott, her day starts with radiation, five days a week.
“She has to hold onto her stuffed animals to get her through every day,” Claire’s father, Brett Elliott said.
Doctors diagnosed Claire with a rare brain tumor, just one day after Thanksgiving.
“Her tumor is called DIPG, that's short for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma,” Elliott said.
“Pretty much no children live past two years and the average expectancy is about 9 months from diagnosis. So, we're hoping to beat those odds." Elliott said. "Only 200-to-300 people are diagnosed a year."
Right now there is no cure for DIPG and because of where the tumor is located, surgery is not an option for Claire. So the family is putting their faith in a clinical trial, but they need some help.
“Right now the situation we're in is very unique, having to take a lot of time off work to be there for her and knowing you'll need to be there even more for her, going forward,” Elliott said.
Claire's father created a GoFundMe page to help cover the medicals costs for Claire's treatments.
“We'll be out of state for a clinical trial, needing housing, assistance with rental cars and daily life up to a month or possibly longer,” Elliott said.
As a paramedic, Brett is known for helping others in trying times.
“You're so used to being able to help or at least try to help and now you get to be on the other side and at this point in time with this type of tumor, we are helpless, and we are helpless in treating it, preventing it,” Elliott said.
Claire is aware of her tumor and that she's sick, but she doesn't know the prognosis.
“We don’t want her to live, looking at a calendar. we want her to live each day and be happy,” Elliot said.