9-14-2024 5:02pm

This 8-Year Old Is More Than A Child...She Is A Super Warrior

Beth Callahan Editor

Submitted Photo: Meet Ashton Hawkins

MORROW, OH -- Meet Ashton Hawkins. She is an 8-year-old who enjoys playing with her four sisters, Sage (9), Sloane (6), Eden (5) and Koa (2). She also enjoys helping her mom around the house while hoping to be a mommy someday herself.

Being the second oldest, in the "cheer squad" as her mother Amanda Hawkins calls her five daughters, Ashton is the one who has always loved to help her mom the most with her three younger sisters. "She's just always loved helping me take care of the babies," Amanda said, explaining that Ashton has always told her how she wants to grow up to be a mommy someday.

"I want to be a baby-sitter," Ashton chimed in while holding her Barbie as her mom explained to me that "baby-sitter" means mommy.

But, Ashton wasn't holding any ordinary Barbie as we sat and chatted at Starbucks. She was holding a Barbie that is gifted to children that are warriors... fighters...and truly brave. Ashton was holding Mattel's Brave Barbie, a doll designed to remind every child fighting cancer that they are “brave, strong, and beautiful.”

A little over a year ago, Ashton was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, the most common cancerous brain tumor in children. Ashton had her first surgery on August 25th of 2023, then spent a month in the hospital re-learning different functions such as eating and walking. But for this brave little warrior, another battle waited ahead as she had to return for a second surgery when doctors found another tumor.

"They gave us a week to celebrate. We had a huge birthday bash and got some family photos done before her second surgery," Amanda said explaining it was after her second surgery she was diagnosed Posterior Fossa Syndrome — identified by a collection of symptoms including reduced or absent speech, irritability, low muscle tone (hypotonia), unsteadiness and reduced coordination (ataxia) and the inability to coordinate voluntary movements.

"She is a rock star," Amanda said, explaining that Ashton has gone from needing to use a wheelchair and a walker to now getting around all on her own. "She till needs help getting up the stairs and in and out of the car, but she has come along way."

Along with her surgery, Ashton has had to go through radiation treatments, which are finished, and chemotherapy treatments, which she still has two more. And, since hair loss is a common side effect of chemo and radiation, Ashton's gift of Brave Barbie from the non-profit organization Starlight has helped her better understand her own hair loss. Brave Barbie is bald due to cancer treatments and uses wigs and other head accessories like many cancer patients do.

But, what about her dream of becoming a mommy?

Because of all the treatments she has been going through, research shows she will not be able to conceive if something wasn't done to preserve her eggs. Since her eggs were not mature, they had one of her ovaries removed and frozen, so that when she is ready to have a child, her ovary can be replanted into her.