Welcome to Pray4Clay!!!
This site has been made for our very sweet and special little boy, Clay Dixon. On December 3, 2007 he was diognosed with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. A biopsi at Duke University Medical Center showed that Clay has a Low~grade (stage II) Astrocytoma or in laymens terms a cancerous brain stem tumor. Clay Dixon is a seven year old boy from Columbia, SC. He currently is taking chemotherapy at Duke University. Aside from what his his medical insurance will pay the medical bills and the expense of travel have begun to add up. The monthly chemotherapy bill is $15,000 this is not including any of his medicines he takes. Because of Clays condition his mother has had to quit her job to take care of him. This is a genuine need for a wonderful little boy and his family. Please Pray4Clay and if you can please help us help him. All donations made through this site will go to Clay's family.
If you would like to donate to Clay and his family, click the "Make A Donation" below or go to the "Donate Here" page above. Both links give instructions on how to send donations straight to the bank.
Please subscribe to our site in the box at the bottom of this page. It allows us to send out e-mails about updates made to the site.
Benefit For Clay
We want to thank everyone that came out to support us at our benefit for Clay on Nov. 8, 2008. It was a great sucess and we made some wonderful new friends in our community and we added new members to our family in the form of Cathy, Johnnie, Jacob and Clay Dixon. We are not going to let you know how much we raised yet because we are still trying to raise more money plus we have not told the family where we are at yet. Please continue to help us raise money for this family.
The Pray4Clay Team
PRAY4CLAY
This is Clay at Duke University Medical Center before he had his successful biopsy procedure.
Six-year-old Clay Dixon has been battling a tumor in his brain stem for several months, but now he knows he's not alone, after spending a week with other kids at Camp Kemo in Batesburg-Leesville, SC.
"It's good to get away from everything," Clay said. "I'm glad I came to camp. I got new friends. I got more things to do."
His positive attitude is what doctors hope will keep him looking for the new things to do. Right now, he just wants to talk about his friends. "Daniel and both Bryce beat their cancer," Clay explained. "It kinda makes me think, maybe I'll beat cancer, maybe I'll beat it before it beats me."
Clays mother wrote this about him on his caringbridge site:
Joseph Clay Dixon, birthday July 26, 2001, 6yr Dad~ Johnnie Mom~Cathy Brother~Jacob In August 2007 Clay started 1st grade at Francis Mack Primary in Andi Harrelson's Class. In Late October she mentioned to me that she sometimes had a hard time understanding Clay when he was talking to her. She said an evaluation by the school's speech therapist would be a good idea to maybe help Clay pronounce his words better. About a week later Clay was seen been by Keri Hersey, the speech therapist. She called and asked if I could come in for a meeting and I said sure. She said Clay seem to have weakness on the right side of the back of his throat and recommended that he see a ENT. I got him an appointment on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Dr. King (ENT) said we needed to do an MRI to see what was causing the weakness. On November 30th Clay had his first ever MRI. That afternoon we took him home and the next day he was back to normal, very happy and healthy !! Monday December 3,2007 ours lives changed forever. I got a call from Dr.King's nurse that he wanted to meet with us. I picked up Johnnie and was at his office within the hour. He told us that Clay has a mass in his brain and sent us to a Pediatric Brain Surgeon. Befor leaving his office he prayed with us. By that afternoon we were told that Clay has a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. A devastating brain tumor that is a vine that has wrapped itself around the inside of his brain stem. This is inoproble and considered terminal. The Brain Surgeon (who I have nothing nice to say about) said to take him home and enjoy him. He said Clay had maybe 15 mo. to live. That Dr had no humanity left in him, I should pray for him but can't. That Friday we took Clay to see Pediatric Oncologist Dr. Kevin McRedmond. He supported us in sending Clay's scans to Duke University Medical Center to see Dr. Gururangan (Dr.G) After looking at Clay's scans he felt that we should do a tumor biopsi there. On Wednesday Febuary 22nd Dr. Gearld Grantt, a Pediatric Brain Surgeon at Duke, did a tumor biopsi that showed Clay's tumor to be a Low~Grade, Stage II, Astrocytoma. Clay had a port placed in his chest on April 4th and received his first chemo treatment on April 5th. We have 100% Faith in God and know that he has been in control of this nightmare that we have been living. Through this we have met many strangers that have since become wonderful friends. Thank you to our Family & Friends for being there for us in so many ways !!
Please visit Clay's Caringbridge website
Some content on this page taken from WIS TV & WLTX TV
