The hope they gave helped save their daughter

Not long after Madelyn was born in 2018, her dad heard a story on the radio about children with cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. Matt was so moved that he signed up to be a monthly donor — a Partner in Hope — under Madelyn’s name.

“No family should have to go through that,” he thought.

Matt and his wife Brittany did the same when their younger daughter, Addison, was born. They never imagined they’d one day need that hope themselves.

Madelyn was 5 in May 2023 when she began complaining of headaches. She was dramatic by nature, Brittany said, and sometimes the timing was suspicious — like just as they pulled up at preschool. They even read “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to her.

But they took her for an eye exam. Her vision was fine, but the doctor recommended seeing her pediatrician. The pediatrician did a neurological exam, ordered blood work and a CT scan. The earliest appointment for the scan was in four days. 

That night, the family skipped a rodeo because Madelyn’s head hurt. The next day, at a birthday party, she asked to lie down in the car. Overnight, Madelyn vomited twice.

The next morning, they took her to the emergency room, where a CT scan revealed a mass about the size of a golf ball in her brain. 

Brittany rode with Madelyn in the ambulance to a hospital with an oncology department 20 minutes away. “It was so surreal,” she said. Madelyn had only ever been sick once — an ear infection.

Matt dropped Addison at her grandmother’s house and followed the ambulance. “It was like a really bad dream,” he said. One he couldn’t wake from.

Pig named ‘Pizza’

The neurosurgeon had tears in his eyes, Matt said. He was a dad, too. The mass was a medulloblastoma, a rare cancerous brain tumor. The pressure it created on her brain triggered her headaches and vomiting.

In surgery two days later, the neurosurgeon removed Madelyn’s entire tumor. Matt and Brittany waited anxiously for her to wake, knowing the risks of brain surgery to cognition and physical abilities. 

When the neurosurgeon checked on Madelyn, he picked up a stuffed pig someone had given her and asked, “Who’s this?”

“It’s Pizza,” Madelyn told him. 

Concerned she was confused, the doctor looked to Matt, who reassured him: “It’s OK — that’s the pig’s name!”

Madelyn came through surgery just fine. But survival rates for medulloblastoma are 70-80%, or as low as 60% if it has spread. She needed treatment to target any remaining cancer cells.

Madelyn was referred to St. Jude — the very place her family had signed up to support. “We believed in the mission,” Brittany said. Now they were counting on St. Jude to save their daughter.

‘Sense of peace’

The family made the three-hour drive from their Tennessee home to St. Jude. “I felt a sense of peace,” Brittany said. “We knew that it was the place that was going to heal Madelyn.” 

Scans showed Madelyn’s cancer hadn’t spread. She was treated with a protocol developed under the SJMB12 clinical trial, which reimagined how doctors treat medulloblastoma and combined genetic and clinical expertise with personalized care. 

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, SJMB12 used genetic testing to tailor treatment. Kids with low-risk tumors received less intense therapy to help protect developing brains; those with aggressive tumors got stronger treatments to give them the best chance of survival. It was the kind of hope her parents had signed up for.

Madelyn’s treatment began with 30 rounds of proton therapy. She felt nauseous at times but still played outside at the Ronald McDonald House, riding trikes and scooters. Brittany stayed with Madelyn at St. Jude, while Matt drove back and forth with Addison. Some weekends, Madelyn got to go home. 

Two weeks into treatment, Madelyn’s hair began to fall out. She had her head shaved in the salon at Family Commons, a treatment-free zone at St. Jude for families to recharge. “We thought she’d be upset,” Matt said. But surrounded by other kids who’d lost their hair, Madelyn didn’t seem to mind. 

That weekend, Matt let Madelyn shave his head. Their closest friends — a dad and his two sons — did the same. “Bald is beautiful,” Madelyn proclaimed. A fashionista even at 5, she’d pull on a neon yellow wig or crocheted hat with a yarn braid.

Madelyn started kindergarten at Imagine Academy at St. Jude, a milestone that brought normalcy to a time that was anything but. The family bonded with other patient families, gathering for dinner after long days of appointments. Madelyn played with the other kids — crafts, slime (“She made a lot of slime,” Brittany laughed), and impromptu spa days with facial masks and manicures.

“These families are just like everyone else’s,” Brittany said. “They’re completely halting their lives to fight for their kids.” They leaned on each other. “It was a big part of our healing — and continues to be,” Brittany said.

Healing and homecoming

After proton therapy, Madelyn needed seven rounds of chemotherapy — each lasting 28 days. It was harder than proton therapy. Madelyn spiked fevers and lost weight, dropping from over 50 pounds before her diagnosis to around 40 — the same weight as her 3-year-old sister.

After nine months of treatment, Madelyn returned home on March 29, 2024, just in time to finish kindergarten with her class. The family picked up life with a deeper appreciation for what matters.

“We’ve learned that you can make it through anything if you have the right support,” Brittany said. Their family and friends rallied when Madelyn got sick. “We are all united in our love for Madelyn,” Brittany said. 

They’d heard how illness could strain marriages, but it strengthened theirs. Even when apart, they talked daily and visited often. Matt told Brittany, “If you need me in Memphis, I will come. If you are missing Addie, I’ll bring her over.”

Taking care of Addison — her silliness, their walks in the park, ice cream stops —helped Matt stay grounded. He learned to stop sweating the small stuff — and to celebrate even the tiniest wins. “Anything positive that could possibly come out of the day,” he said, “celebrate it.”

Hope returned

Now 8, Madelyn, who goes by “Maddie Rea,” loves second grade, her friends and animals. “She’s caring, loving, thoughtful and compassionate,” Matt said. “She has a big heart.”

She’s still a fashionista, a fan of flare-bottomed pants and head-turning outfits. Her parents sometimes suggest toning it down, but Madelyn doesn’t care what people think. She is uniquely herself.

Her parents still worry whenever she gets a headache. “That’s the thing about childhood cancer — it never ends,” Brittany said. “You’re always going to have that fear.”

They hope cancer doesn’t define Madelyn — but know it shaped her.

“I hope it’s a label she wears proudly, but I hope it doesn’t define her,” Brittany said. “We want her to just be a normal kid, too.”

One morning, as Matt brushed Addison’s hair, Madelyn asked, “Can you put mine in a ponytail, too?”

He could. Her hair was finally long enough.

Giving back

Madelyn returns to St. Jude every three months for checkups. The girls look forward to each visit. St. Jude was there for their family — now, they’re there for St. Jude.

During treatment, Brittany organized a toy drive, collecting about 300 items for gift closets on inpatient floors and clinics. She got a scooter like the ones used in physical therapy donated to the Ronald McDonald House.

Every checkup, Matt donates platelets at the donation center at St. Jude. Madelyn received many transfusions during treatment. “The transformation when she got a bag of platelets was night and day,” Matt said. “She had her energy again.” 

Brittany had T-shirts and bandanas printed with “Maddie’s Rea” across a sun and “shines on the hardest of days” underneath — gifts for those who walked alongside them. She gave crocheted suns to Madelyn’s care team, a thank-you for helping her daughter shine.

The family participates in St. Jude events and raises money on social media. They’ve shared their story with the media, at events and on The Bobby Bones Show's annual St. Jude Radiothon at the iHeartMedia studios at WSIX-FM in Nashville — the same radio show that first inspired them to support St. Jude. 

They’re still Partners in Hope®. Now, more than ever, they understand the power of that hope.