For Jane Heffey, a 28-year-old nurse at Aintree Hospital in Liverpool, “everything had been perfect.” She had a house, a career that she was happy with, a partner she loved, a nine-month-old daughter, Niamh, and another baby on the way. But unbeknownst to Jane, cervical cancer was spreading throughout of her body.
Susanna Rohm was holding her 2-month-old son, Isaiah, in her lap when he fell asleep abruptly. She knew right away that something was very wrong.
Jonah Pournazarian goes to school like most 7-year-old boys. And just like most kids his age, Jonah has a best friend, Dylan. But unlike other kids his age, Jonah is fighting a rare medical condition for which there is no cure; Jonah has glycogen storage disease type 1B.
Keira Vidikan was like most happy and healthy six-year-old girls. But one day, just before her ballet class in Dayton, Ohio, she started complaining that she had a headache. That headache was the first symptom of a condition that brought Keira to the brink of death.
Some stories are just so touching, so beautiful, that they give you hope and remind you that miracles really do happen. Some stories instantly fill your heart and bring tears to your eyes because they remind you that humanity is still alive and well in the world. These stories are my absolute favorite! And we’ve had the opportunity to share a lot of them this year.
This year, we were honored to share some of the most heartwarming stories of inspiration, amazing stories of survival and bravest heroes – both big and small. As 2012 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of those stories. We hope they warm your heart as much as they did ours.
Madeleine Johnson-Marsh is just your typical 7-year-old girl, but this blond-haired Oteha Valley School girl was one big hero earlier this week. She saved a toddler from drowning in the ocean when the tot’s own mother was too afraid to enter the ocean.
Kyle Camp, a 10-year-old boy with Down Syndrome, went missing from his Alabama home on Tuesday afternoon. According to family members, the little boy had been watching television one minute but was gone the next. His disappearance led to a search of his family’s 20-acre forest by a crew of 150 people, but nightfall came around and there was still no sign of Kyle.
Could you imagine your child having a tumor that weighed more than they did? One little boy from the northern state of Durango in Mexico had one, but Mexican doctors recently removed the tumor and the little boy, Jesus Rodriguez, is now said to be recovering well.
Trudy Hilary walked in on every mother’s worst nightmare: her two-year-old son, Zach, collapsed, lying on the floor and groaning. He’d had a heart attack.
Dawa Titung, a seven-year-old boy from Nepal, missed out on the coddling, carrying and snuggling most young infants receive from their parents, but it had nothing to do with an unwillingness or lack of desire on his mother’s part – she just couldn’t lift him up.
Frank Roder, a construction worker from Winfield Park had a nice, peaceful afternoon in mind – he and his son, Aidan, were heading down to the Rahway River to feed the ducks. But the afternoon ended up being anything but peaceful when he stopped the car for a moment and Aidan hopped out.
Little Heidi Hankins may be just four years old, but her IQ already surpasses the Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman and falls just under Big Bang scientist Stephen Hawking, both of which are Mensa members; the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world.
