Town celebrates 8-year-old cancer patient's last radiation treatment with huge ice cream party
When Max Mendez’s mother, Amy, asked him what he would like to do to celebrate his last radiation treatment, he said he wanted to go out for ice cream with friends. That simple celebration turned out to be so much more when their town, Merrimack, N.H., got wind of the plans.
Max, 8, has been battling leukemia for two years, so his party had to be a little bit bigger than just a couple of scoops of ice cream.
Amy wrote on her Facebook page, “This guy is FINISHED with radiation on Tuesday. I asked him how he’d like to celebrate, and he said ‘ice cream with friends’….If you’re around we’d love for you to stop by and join us… ALL ARE WELCOME!”
Axel’s Food & Ice Cream also invited guests on Facebook. The shop wrote, “We will be selling raffle tickets with all proceeds going to the Jimmy Fund in Max’s name! Merrimack, let’s show some love to Max & his family!”
The town’s firefighters and police officers brought their trucks and cruisers out for the young man as well. “We understand that Max likes fire trucks, police cruisers, all that fun stuff, so it was our opportunity to come out and greet him and hopefully cheer up his day,” Merrimack Fire Capt. Brian Dubreuil told WMUR9.
This successful celebration is perhaps karma for Max’s own goodwill. Over the holidays, Max held “Mighty Max’s Mega Toy Drive” to help collect toys for other children who are battling diseases. Children at the Jimmy Fund Clinic, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children’s Hospital benefited from the toy drive.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a ton of support, and we’ve always wanted to pay that forward and give where we can, so to see that the community is doing that as well, is just amazing,” Amy Mendez told the outlet.
Mighty Max has one year of chemotherapy to go, but the town certainly helped him celebrate a huge milestone in his treatment.
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