Teen dies days after seeing his wish come true
By Maddy Terril
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WICHITA, Kansas (KAKE) — A 14-year-old Wichita boy has died following a battle with cancer. Last week, AJ Yell had the opportunity to meet Frank Waugh, CBM KAKE, through Wichita’s Littlest Heroes organization.
AJ’s mother, Jessica, shared the following with KAKE News:
“Thank you for sharing our story and letting us come see Frank. We are overwhelmed by the community support and love. I’m so happy we got to share a little piece of AJ. People got to see what we had for 14 beautiful years.”
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When granting a sick child a wish, you might think he would pick to go somewhere like Disney World.
Not 14-year-old AJ Yell.
AJ just wanted to meet KAKE Meteorologist Frank Waugh, and with the help of an organization called “Wichita’s Littlest Heroes,” AJ’s wish came true.
“I would say, ‘AJ, Frank’s on TV.’ And he’d just come out of his room. He’d watch it. After it was done, he’d go back,” AJ’s mom, Jessica Yell, said.
Although AJ is non-verbal, his mom said that whenever Frank came on TV, his energy and demeanor changed completely.
He was born with a rare genetic disease called Tuberous Sclerosis, which causes benign tumors to grow on different parts of the body.
Then, at 11 years old, AJ was diagnosed with a PEComa, a rare type of tumor that originates from cells that surround blood vessels.
“They were able to resect that one, and we went with a year of no treatment, but about a year and a half, they found two more tumors,” his mom said.
Doctors were able to resect one, but they could not resect the other, which led to more treatment for a year.
However, this October, doctors found AJ’s body was no longer responding to the treatment, and the tumor had tripled in size.
Throughout all of the trials in AJ’s life, his mom said one thing remained the same.
“Even when we had many hospital stays, we’d always make sure the news was on and the weather was on, and he’d always look up there, even from his hospital bed,” Yell said.
Now, his family is facing the reality that AJ’s time on earth will soon come to an end.
“The doctor came to us and said, is there a day you want to get to? And we said we would love to get to Christmas,” Yell said.
So the family has put up their Christmas tree, hung the lights, and is making every day feel like Christmas.
In an effort to make this holiday season extra special for AJ, his mom took to Facebook to try to get a Christmas card from all 50 states. Yell said the support this project has received from strangers is overwhelming.
“We have about 400 Christmas cards,” she said, “we read every single card to him.” She says AJ now has so many grandmas and aunties across the country sending him love.
As AJ’s time on Earth is limited, the family continues to pray for a miracle.
If you would like to get updates on AJ and contribute to funding AJ’s memorial, the family’s GoFundMe can be found here.
“We have about 400 Christmas cards,” she said, “we read every single card to him.” She says AJ now has so many grandmas and aunties across the country sending him love.
As AJ’s time on Earth is limited, the family continues to pray for a miracle.
This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.
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