Brownsville Steps Up To Help Young Girl Suffering From Cancer

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Dozens have stepped up to raise money for an 11-year-old girl with bone cancer who is living in a Brownsville shelter and unable to receive the surgery she needs until her mom finds a job. Mia Blount's cancer is in remission, but she is in dire need of an operation to replace the metal rod in her leg that she outgrew and is causing her massive pain, her mom said.

After hearing about Blount's plight in the New York Daily News, the girl's assistant principal at Brownsville Collaborative middle school, Nyesha Shade, created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her surgery. In eight days, the page has raised more than $3,800 from 54 donors, with a goal of $50,000.

"While her school community has been very supportive of Mia's condition, her days are very difficult while she tries to get around on crutches and smile through the pain," Shade wrote.

"I think it's good, because Ms. Shade is helping me," Mia told the Daily News. "She gives me hugs and kisses."

The GoFundMe is also raising money for the travel costs incurred when Blount's mother, Shameeka Williams, has to travel back and forth between NYC and Charlotte, NC to get a new job. Williams was born in NYC, but moved her family down south until she lost her job as a corrections officer. Many of Blount's doctors are in Charlotte, and the environment there is better for her recovery, her mother said.

Now Williams and her three children are living in a one-room shelter in Brownsville, the Daily News reported.

Lead photo via GoFundMe