'The bravest 2-year-old' has an entire team by her side as she fights cancer

Shiloh Crimmel is a normal 2-year-old. 

An energetic child with bright eyes and short, thin blond hair, she likes playing with her big sister, Harper, who’s 4. She likes putting puzzles together. She likes playing with an iPad. She and her sister pretend to cook, or play parents to their stuffed animals, putting them to bed or into time-out when they misbehave. She likes painting.

She smiles easily and is outgoing. laughing as her sister chases her around the living room of their North Codorus Township home. She likes watching Penn State basketball on TV – for reasons that will become clear – and she loves the Nittany Lion mascot. He’s her friend. 

You would never guess that about eight months ago, she was in a bed in the Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, that her parents, Cindy and Brian, were by her side, still reeling from hearing the words that no parent would ever want to hear – your child has cancer. 

She gains a Penn State family 

Shiloh had been a healthy baby, and for most of her first years, she was fine. “Everything was normal,” Cindy said.  

Then, a couple of weeks after her second birthday last May, she had a fever. It wasn’t terribly troubling, about 100, but still, it was a fever, and her parents took her to the pediatrician.

Initially, the doctor told them it was a cold. But a few days later, her lymph nodes in her throat were swollen; Brian said they were hard to the touch. They went back to the doctor, who told them it could be from the cold.

A few days after that, the swelling hadn’t subsided and in fact, had spread. Her cheeks were swollen, and her face was puffy, her parents said. 

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The doctor ordered some blood work to check for mono. It turned out she was anemic, the test revealing that she had one-third of the red blood cells she should have had. The doctor told them to take her to the Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey for a transfusion.

The doctors at Hershey initially suspected Shiloh had contracted the flu, something they confirmed with a test. Her condition didn’t improve, and on her third day in the hospital, the doctors performed a bone marrow biopsy. 

The diagnosis was acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  

It was, as you could imagine, devastating. Brian, as most parents do when a child gets sick, had assumed the worst, and was prepared for the worst. Cindy had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was terribly wrong.

“I didn’t want to admit something was wrong,” she said. “But I just had that feeling that it would be bad.” And hearing the word cancer was a gut punch. She lost her father to the disease. 

There was some good news in the diagnosis, though. The doctors said the form of cancer she had has a 94 percent cure rate.  

The doctors performed surgery the next day to install a port for chemotherapy and began treatment that day. The toddler responded well, Steroid treatments removed the leukemia cells from her blood. She is still undergoing treatment to kill the cancer in her bone marrow.  

Her sister helps her get through it. Early on, when she needed a lot of oral medication and didn’t want to take it, Harper would lie next to her and tell her, “You can do it. Be brave.” 

It appears Shiloh will be fine.

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She'll be there for her THON friends

This weekend, she is going to the place where she has spent the happiest days of the past few months – Penn State. She has been adopted by the Lionettes dance team for the university’s dance marathon, called THON, an annual event that raises money to help kids like her and their families. 

Cindy was familiar with THON. She teaches eighth-grade math at Emory H. Markle Intermediate School in the South Western School District, and the school holds a mini-THON every year.

She always supports it and buys the T-shirt, and it gives her the opportunity to be able to wear jeans for work. Brian, who teaches physical education in the York City schools, wasn’t as familiar with it. 

They knew that THON is a big deal at Penn State. They've seen news reports about it, which always note that the dance marathon raises more than $10 million a year for the Four Diamonds to pay for cancer research and support families of children suffering from the disease. Over its 45 years of existence, it has raised more than $140 million.

They had no idea of the scope of the support until they had been at the hospital for a while. A social worker with the foundation met with them after they had been at the hospital for a few days. She asked them, “Do you know what the Four Diamonds is?” 

They weren’t entirely sure. 

They soon learned. 

The social worker asked them where they had been eating. They said they just grabbed something to eat at the hospital cafeteria. The social worker gave them vouchers for food. She also gave them vouchers for gas, noting that they had a long drive. Four Diamonds also picked up any medical expenses that weren’t covered by insurance. It picked up the costs of prescriptions. It picked up everything.

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The foundation also connected the Crimmels with other families going through the same ordeal. “No one really understands what you’re going through,” Cindy said. “But we don’t have to do it alone. You don’t ever feel all alone because there’s always someone there.” 

The foundation put the Crimmels in touch with the Penn State Lionettes dance team, which has adopted Shiloh as one of their own. She has been to basketball games at the Bryce Jordan Center and sat with the Lionettes, cheering the team. She has been to soccer games, where she has spent much of the day playing with the Lionettes and other kids. She watches Penn State basketball games just to catch a glimpse of her friends sitting courtside.  

The friendship is mutual. 

“Our entire team absolutely adores Shiloh and her big sister, Harper,” dance team member Jenna Detorre wrote in an email. “She is truly the bravest 2-year-old we know. She never complains or fusses about treatment and takes it like the warrior she is. We are so proud of how strong she and her entire family are. She inspires all of us, each and every day to keep doing what we love and fighting for a cure, so one day we can dance in celebration.” 

This weekend, Shiloh and her family will be spending a lot of time in the Bryce Jordan Center as members of the Lionettes spend 46 hours straight dancing to raise money for the Four Diamonds. Shiloh has painted pictures for her friends and will be there to support them. 

They’ve supported her. 

And she hopes she gets to dance with the Nittany Lion. 

“He’s my friend,” she said. 

To help 

THON begins Friday and runs all weekend. You don’t have to be in State College to help. To donate, visit thon.donordrive.com.