A seven-year-old boy from Roseville, California who had donated his hair to make wigs for children with cancer is now fighting for his life against the same disease in an ironical twist of fate.
Vinny Desautels donated 13 inches of his hair to cancer victims and endured teasing from his school mates while he grew his hair out for two years. This was before he was diagnosed with the same deadly disease recently, Fox News reports.
Early this month, he arrived home with a pain on his knee, Fox 5 reports.
His parents took him to a hospital where doctors discovered a large growth on his right hip.
The next day, doctors also inspected his right eye, which had become progressively more swollen, suspecting that the eye swelling and the hip growth were related. Their suspicion proved correct after they found a malignant mass in the bone around his eye, and behind his nose and cheek.
"It is stage 4 aggressive cancer," Vinny's father, Jason Desautels told Fox40.
The second grader remains optimistic that he will be able to beat the disease.
"Well, the veins from my hip are traveling to another place right behind my eye, and it's making it squinty," Vinny matter-of-factly told Fox40.
Vinny's grandparents Sue and Ron Desautels have started a Go Fund Me account for their grandson to ease the burden of his parents, Jason and Amanda.
Amanda is six months pregnant while Jason is a combat veteran, according to the grandparents.
"Over the next days, weeks, and months ahead they will need to be at countless doctor appointments, hospital stays and surgeries. As you can imagine the normal costs of everyday living...such as rent, food, gas, car, etc...the medical costs can be astronomical," they wrote on the GoFundMe page for Vinny.
"From the bottom of our hearts we humbly ask that you share this link with friends and family and if possible in giving (any amount will help).
"We thank you for your support and God bless each and every one of you!!"
As of Thursday, 11,137 people have donated a total of $457,030 to the GoFundMe account for Vinny after 11 days of posting.
A Facebook page dedicated to updates about Vinny has also been made.
