East Syracuse, NY -- When school starts on Tuesday, 11-year-old Sierra Taylor plans to be right there in fifth grade, where she belongs. The grave illness she’s fighting has sapped her strength and stamina, but not her spirit. Sierra attends East Syracuse Elementary School and has been battling Stage 4 medulloblastoma brain tumors for almost four years. Her doctors...
A fundraisers is being held Sunday to help pay some expenses for Sierra Taylor who is gravely ill.East Syracuse, NY -- When school starts on Tuesday, 11-year-old Sierra Taylor plans to be right there in fifth grade, where she belongs. The grave illness she’s fighting has sapped her strength and stamina, but not her spirit.
Sierra attends East Syracuse Elementary School and has been battling Stage 4 medulloblastoma brain tumors for almost four years. Her doctors say it’s terminal and she has only a few months left, at best. Sierra, however, is focused on the start of school.
“She doesn’t want to do anything else but go to school on that first day,” said her mother, Katrina Weston, of East Syracuse. “She’s only 11, but she has an old soul. She’s not sad or miserable; instead, she’s cracking jokes and she just has an amazing attitude.”
A fundraiser is being held in Sierra’s name Sunday in East Syracuse to raise enough money to help her mother provide a proper funeral and burial, said Doreen Steinberger, a teacher’s aide who has never met Sierra but has been touched by her story.
Weston, 35, is a single mother with seven children age 10 to 19. She said she’s grateful for any help the community gives her.
Sierra was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor in October 2006. She had surgery to remove it that resulted in paralysis on her right side. Sierra worked hard to regain her abilities, her mother said, and was able to walk and talk again.
In November 2008, another tumor was discovered on her spine. She underwent an autoimmune stem cell transplant and intense chemotherapy, an incredibly painful remedy that seemed to halt the cancer’s spread.
Last March, she returned to school, but by the end of May, doctors discovered that numerous tumors had recurred on her spine and brain, and the cancer had progressed. The school rallied behind Sierra, as classmates sent her letters, called daily and visited to help with homework.
“The kids didn’t know her that long, but they really reached out to her,” her mother said. “She is just an amazing kid.”
Contact Elizabeth Doran at edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.