Danica had a caring heart and always wanted to help others. She would ask questions about those she would see on the street or on TV. She loved caring for babies, especially wanting to help at an early age at her daycare. She looked forward to family holidays so she could see her baby cousins. During Covid, she made ear savers and sold them to raise money to donate as many as she could to local hospitals and foundations. Danica loved animals and enjoyed her time with her Yorkie, Bolt. He was her sidekick and never left her side when she was home from treatment.

Danica was fun to be around. She loved teasing her sister, dad and cousins. She loved telling jokes and making people laugh. She looked forward to when she was tall enough for the rides at any amusement park. Her most favorite were the Log Flume, Pirate Ship and Six Flag’s Skull Mountain. Danica was very artistic and loved to color and draw. Coloring and drawing turned into loving the world of makeup! She enjoyed braiding hair and taught herself how to braid hair as early as 3 years old. She watched YouTube videos for new hair and makeup techniques and decided to make her own YouTube channel showing people how to do their own makeup. She learned how to crochet in school and would sit for hours making small blankets for her barbies and doll babies. Danica was very constructive also. She loved Legos. Legos became her obsession during the first hospital stay when she was diagnosed with cancer. After her first brain surgery, the hospital’s child life staff gave her a box of Legos to help with her hand and eye coordination. She was a pro at building anything with Legos.

Danica had a competitive streak in her. She was mostly competitive with her sister. Whether it was gymnastics, track and field, drawing, and archery (which she was a natural doing). Whatever her sister was doing, she wanted to try everything! She looked up to her sister enough to be as amazing as she was.

Danica loved to travel. She was a world explorer always looking forward to her next adventure. She loved to help us decide where we were going next for summer vacation. As long as she was able to stay in a hotel room or cruise ship cabin, she was in her happy place.

Danica was diagnosed on Christmas day 2018 with Medulloblastoma (SHH and TP53 mutation) brain cancer at the age of 8. She had surgery on 12/27/2018 that took 13 hours to remove a 25mm tumor. After 6 weeks of recovery, she had 31 rounds of proton radiation followed by 4 months of high dose chemotherapy with 4 stem cell transplants. She finished treatment in August 2019.

The next several follow-up MRI scans showed the disease was gone. On June 29, 2020, her MRI showed the cancer had come back. She had her second surgery on July 6th, and they removed a 26mm tumor. After talking to her oncologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, we opted to go with the T-Cell Immunotherapy trial in Washington DC. The trial failed to do anything. Danica continued with different trials and chemo, but the traditional cancer treatment failed. We were told to take her home and keep her comfortable. There was nothing else they could do. We didn’t want to give up, so than we tried an all-natural holistic approach which we saw an improvement in her within a week. Danica started walking again. The next MRI showed improvement. We thought everything was on the right track. After about 2 months this treatment stopped working. Danica had a shunt placed to relieve pressure on her brain. She then had another surgery to remove the bulk of the tumor so she could do another trial, this time in Alabama. They couldn’t remove enough of the tumor for the trial to be safe. Danica started chemo again on January 26, 2022. The next morning about 2:37am, Danica was throwing up. About 7am she was unresponsive. A CT scan of her head confirmed the tumor had bled again. Danica remained in a coma like state until she passed away on February 23, 2022.