Ankeny Runs, Golfs, for Toddler with Devastating Illness

The Ankeny community has rallied around a 20-month old, blond toddler boy who was recently diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare disorder in which a proliferation of immune cells form tumor-like globs or granulomas in various organs from the skin to the bones.

Nile Morris was diagnosed with an extreme case of the disease in August and is currently receiving chemotherapy at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, according a journal written by his parents on Caring Bridge.

Morris is the son of Corey and Melissa Morris.

A golf outing and a 24-hour run have been planned to raise funds for the family so far.

Brad Dains will run during the  Equalizer Endurance Run  at Gray's Lake Park in Des Moines and raise funds for the family in an event being called “Miles for Nile” on Oct. 26 and Oct. 27. People can learn more by going to Dains event website: http://www.gofundme.com/48u3c8

And Blogger Mark Charter has set up a “Hitting the Links for Nile” event on Oct. 20 at Terrace Hills Golf Course in Altoona. Learn more here: http://www.gofundme.com/Links-For-Nile

A fund has been set up for the Morris family at River Valley Credit Union in Ames.

In a recent update of the boy's treatment Melissa Morris writes that Nile's condition has not improved after seven weeks of treatment but it hasn't spread either.

“There are always two sides to every story and two ways to look at life.  The test results from Friday are back.  Here are the two ways we could look at this fork in the road:

1. (glass half empty) We have not made any progress within the last 7 weeks of treatments.  The chemo treatments did nothing to the LCH. We wasted our time with the lower forms of chemo therapy drugs. 

2.  (glass half full) The disease has not spread or gotten worse. We were using caution by stair-stepping our way up the chemo ladder.  Progressively working our way to where we are today. Trying all options before we jump. 

I'm forcing myself to only see today's news as #2 with the glass half full approach.  As such, later this week we will jump up to the next stronger chemo drugs. This new one is MAJOR. :(  The plan is 5 days of chemo if Nile's body can handle it. Then a month off to recover. No thank you as I'm not discussing with you the side effects.  I'm scared and that should be enough for all of you to know how awful this will be for Nile.  One thing is that he will never be alone during this new path and I thank all of you for that. “