TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Four-year-old Tinley loves looking for fairies in flowers. She loves horses, and finding the absolute best rock in a pile of thousands.
But unlike most four-year-olds, Tinley is battling the fight of a lifetime.
“We had an unfortunate incident that happened with our daughter that just changed our life overnight,” Tia Benyshek, Tinley’s mother, said.
On New Year’s Eve of 2019, Tinley woke to a stomach ache that progressively got worse. She was taken to the hospital.
After doing some tests, doctors diagnosed her with pre B-cell ALL — a form of leukemia.
“It’s been a long road,” Tia said. “If you can imagine being a four-year-old, so you just turned four, you had a magical Christmas holiday, you’re going into the new year, and you’re rushed to the hospital, and you’re around doctors and nurses that you’ve never been around before.”
Treatment started immediately. Tinley went through rounds of steroids, chemotherapy, and sedation once a week to test her spinal fluid for cancer cells.
She went into remission within the first nine days, but a severe staff infection kept her in the hospital for much longer.
Tinley hit maintenance in July, but her journey is far from over.
“The next phase will last between two and two and a half years,” Tia said. “She goes back on steroids intermittently, she takes chemotherapy every single day for the next two to two-and-a-half years from home in conjunction with going to the cancer center and getting IV through her port.”
The Benyshek family found support through other families facing the same challenges.
“At first, I don’t think we knew exactly what we were in for as far as how much things cost,” Tia said. “Not only her treatment expenses, but driving back and forth to the hospital. With her diagnosis and the coronavirus, I am now no longer working. I had a daycare in my home, and it was just too risky for her. So when I reached out to some of the other parents, they had told me about the Roundball Classic.”
Tinley is one of three beneficiaries of this year’s Rock Chalk Roundball Classic, where KU basketball greats come together to raise awareness for childhood cancer, and help families like the Benyshek’s by easing their financial burden, so they can focus on healing.
“Life changing,” Tia said of the RCR Classic. “Knowing that we’re not in this alone is literally the best thing in the world.”
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