Why I Extra Life: For My Little Brother

Even though my brother Hunter wasn’t diagnosed with cancer, our family got a big scare when he got sick at the end of April 2014.

He was always extremely energetic, laughing, and talking about everything until he didn’t want to eat or do anything. Then he kept throwing up even without having eaten anything the entire day. My mom took him to our doctor to see what was wrong and he told my mom Hunter had appendicitis. He said it was serious and called for a helicopter escort to the only hospital that could help him.

Hunter was flown to the children’s hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas and stayed there for nearly three weeks. During that time, the doctors had seen that his appendix ruptured and whatever was inside was spreading fast. They caught it in time before anything worse could have happened. My mom had to miss my senior band concert and awards ceremonies before my graduation, but I didn’t care about that, I just wanted my brother to be okay.

He recovered from his surgery and he got to see me graduate from high school. He came home two days before I walked across that stage. I gave him the biggest hug when I got my diploma! I have been thankful every day since then, that Children’s Miracle Network and the hospital in Little Rock helped my little brother and now he is 13 years old!

I have been participating in Extra Life since September 2014 because I heard from the gamers club at CSUB that they were playing video games to help raise money for the Lauren Smalls Children’s Hospital in Bakersfield. I love playing all kinds of video games and I wanted to help any child that I could, so I signed right up. It’s been 5 years since then and I try to make donations at least once a month. I want to help children and families because my family received help in our time of need.

This post was submitted through Extra Life’s Why I Extra Life by Extra Lifer Jordan Bailey playing for Lauren Small Children’s Center. You can learn more about Extra Life at extra-life.org.