Community Pulls Together For 7-Year-Old Battling Rare Cancer

VICTORIA, Minn. (WCCO) -- A family is taking extraordinary measures to help their young daughter with chemotherapy. Maddison Mertz's entire school in Victoria went pink Tuesday for the 7-year-old who's battling a rare cancer. As the support grows, so does the need to find an effective treatment for her tumors.

Doctors diagnosed Maddison with stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme last fall. Surgery removed most of her neck tumor, but last month a MRI showed 6 new tumors, and just last week growth in those tumors.

"The MRI report came back and we kind of shut down as anyone would and then we decided that you can't shut down. You have to look at the light at the end of the tunnel and we push forward and do whatever you can do," mom Lindsay Mertz said.

And that's why the family packed their bags and left for Canada. They'll be there, dogs and all, for up to six weeks so Maddison can have loco-regional hyperthermia treatment. It is approved in Canada, but in clinical trials in the U.S.

"We're just trying anything. Anything. It helps initiate cell death in the tumor. She sits on a water bed and electricity kind of flows through it. The idea is for it to help everything that she's on right now," dad Zack Mertz said.

"If it doesn't harm her, then we'll do it," Lindsay Mertz said.

Over the past few weeks, they've seen how chemotherapy has affected Maddison

"A 7-year-olds little body can only handle so much but she's tough. She gets sick but she continues on with her day," Lindsay Mertz said.

And it's in that spirit her parents trudge on and will try anything to help her.

"You have to get back up and you have to just have hope that what you're doing is right," Zack Mertz said. Lindsay added, "And there's a reason for what happens."

The Mertz family has seen tremendous support and it only continues to spread. Neighbor Liza Halstead designed a healthy snacks cookbook with recipes for children that center around Maddison's diet.

"Seeing what this family is going through at this time we all feel helpless. And how can we do something?" Halstead said.

Smartpress printed the cookbooks free of charge. Everything was donated for the project, so all proceeds from sales will go to the Mertz's.

And there is a big fundraiser for Maddison planned for April 17 at Excelsior Brewing.

A GoFundMe account has also been started to help the family with medical expenses.