Alaina Riggall

Lainey was 4.5 years old when we found a lump in her abdomen. She was a healthy, well-appearing kid with no signs of illness. We took her to Upstate Pediatric ER where within hours, she was diagnosed with multiple tumors in both of her kidneys. At that moment, our lives changed completely.
Within days, she had further testing with confirmed bilateral Wilms tumor. She had a port placed and started three drug chemotherapy in an attempt to shrink the tumors and preserve as much kidney tissue as possible. The chemo started to work, shrinking the tumors but in turn caused severe side effects. Pain, nausea, loss of appetite, constipation, weakness, and of course hair loss all hit fast and furious, within a few weeks she had to be re-admitted due to dehydration and malnutrition. She had a nasogastric tube inserted which allowed us to provide her with fluids and nutrition she desperately needed to fight this monster.

She was a healthy, well-appearing kid with no signs of illness. We took her to Upstate Pediatric ER where within hours, she was diagnosed with multiple tumors in both of her kidneys. At that moment, our lives changed completely.

She completed 9 weeks of chemotherapy at Upstate and then we traveled to Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC where she underwent an 11 hour surgery to remove the 25 tumors from her kidneys. Her recovery was difficult but 10 days later she was discharged home. Testing of the tumors determined her course of treatment and she had 9 more weeks of chemotherapy after surgery.

On August 10, 2022 Lainey “rang the bell” signifying the end of treatment. She was left with significant weakness, foot drop, wrist drop and fine motor difficulties which she spent the next two years completing physical therapy to improve.

Lainey is now a healthy 2nd grader, who is growing and thriving. She has an older sister that she loves dearly, and whom also had to deal with the trauma of seeing her little sister go through such a difficult treatment- cancer really does impact the whole family. Lainey has finally graduated from all her therapies and participates in dance, karate and many other activities.

We still are dealing with routine scans every three months, follow ups with multiple specialties, and another congenital liver problem that was incidentally found. However our family is so grateful to Lainey’s team of doctors, local cancer organizations, and the community of support she has behind her. We know that she will go on to do amazing things.❤️

help local families

More Stories

Kaiden Wentworth

Kaiden has always been a picky eater. But things got progressively worse for us as he began to lose the desire to eat. This started happening in the…

Bryce Bechtel

Bryce was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on May 17, 2018. It takes 3 1/2 years to treat. He is a few months away from his last treatment…

Landen

My name is Landen. I am nine years old, and am in fourth grade at McAllister Elementary in Sherrill, NY. I am a very normal nine-year-old boy. I like to

Eliza Juma

My name is Eliza Juma. I am 13 years old. I was born in the Congo. Coming to America when I was 5 was a different life for me. When

View More Their Stories

Physical & Mailing Address:

50 Presidential PLZ; STE LL-3
Syracuse, NY 13202

Email: [email protected]

Contact Us
X-twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin

Sign up for our newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

©2025 Paige’s Childhood Cancer Fund has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Paige’s Childhood Cancer Fund may be tax deductible. Talk to your tax advisor about whether you can claim a deduction for your gift.