Screenshot from GoFundMe/gofundme.com
Vinny Desautels, a seven-year-old boy from Roseville, California, United States, grew hair for two years and recently snipped it to donate to cancer patients.
“I want to help people so they don’t have to go to the doctors to fight cancer,” Desautels said in an interview with Fox News.
On his seventh birthday, Desautels donated his 13 inches of hair locks to design wigs for children undergoing chemotherapy. The boy, who is in second grade, was routinely ridiculed in class for his long hair and he was mistakenly identified as a girl in countless incidents.
Selflessly, he never asked for any money in return for his charitable deeds.
But in a soap-opera like turn of events, the young ‘Good Samaritan’ who helped kids his age battle cancer was himself diagnosed with cancer.
According to Desautels’ page at funding website GoFundMe, he experienced an excruciating knee pain and an aggressive lump on his right hip last week. He complained of a swollen eye the following day and was hustled to the hospital.
Desautels was diagnosed with cancer in his hip, the bone around his eye, behind the nose, and on his cheek. Doctors are figuring out what kind of cancer he has.
Desautels’ parents, Jason, a war veteran, and Amanda Azevedo, an expectant mother, stayed with their son throughout his laboratory tests and consultations with doctors. Desautels remains sanguine and cheerful despite struggling to fend off the deadly ailment.
“As long as we are doing this as a family, we got this,” Azevedo said. Gianna Francesca Catolico