Blake had been having seizures off and on since he was two years old. But when he was four, they began to happen more often, and started getting worse.

“One night we were all in bed, and I heard a weird noise. My mother instincts kicked in, and I knew Blake was having a seizure,” recalled Blake’s mom, Jeri. “He was on the floor. It was the worst one he had ever had.”

After a late night trip to the local hospital and Blake’s first MRI, they were told Blake needed to be transferred to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Why? The local hospital didn’t have a pediatric radiologist available. So, off they went.

Once there, Jeri remembers the neurosurgeon came in and told them Blake had a brain tumor that was causing fluid to build up and he would need surgery. “After he told us that, he walked out of the room, turned around, came back in and said ‘we’re taking him to surgery right now.’It all happened so fast.”

As it turned out, Blake needed two surgeries, one to drain the fluid off of his brain, and a second one to create a path through his brain, so the fluid would continue to drain out.

“Once he was released from the PICU, it became a waiting game,” said Jeri. Every 3 months they would go to Iowa City to see the oncologist so they could monitor Blake’s tumor for growth. By December of 2018, it had doubled in size and doctors decided 5-year old Blake should begin radiation treatment as soon as possible.

Radiation meant many more trips back and forth from Illinois to Iowa City. And a bigger dent in the family budget. But asking for help was not something Blake’s parents wanted to do.

“We had a hard time asking for assistance. There is always someone out there that is worse off than us, and we didn’t want to take anything away from them,” Jeri said. They finally accepted that, at that point, they were those people, and they needed the help.

Once Compass to Care began to cover the cost of travel expenses, things became easier.

“We didn’t realize how much it helped until Compass to Care was there. We were no longer scrambling to pay for gas. We are so thankful that they are out there, because they understand what families go through,” said Jeri.