Dying boy's heartbreaking mission in final days of life
A dying boy is on a heartbreaking mission to collect enough racing stickers to decorate his casket.
Caleb Hammond, an 11-year-old from Iowa in the US, has reached out on social media, asking for car racing stickers to cover his casket before he dies from cancer.
“We’re trying to get a bunch of them. We’re trying to decorate his casket,” his uncle, Chris Playle, told US news outlet The Des Moines Register.
Caleb has loved racing since he was two years old.
His love of racing came from visiting his uncle, who lived near the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
He is now living out his remaining days with his family after he stopped responding to treatment for leukaemia.
Caleb was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in February 2017.
He received a bone marrow transplant in January 2018, but the leukaemia returned aggressively and he made a difficult decision after undergoing chemotherapy and three rounds of treatment in 2018.
“After very long discussions with doctors and Caleb himself, Caleb decided he no longer wished to receive treatment and was ready to come home to his families,” his mother Holly Kempf wrote on a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his funeral.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare and the next few weeks and months that lie ahead for our families will be extremely hard.”
Chris Playle said the support for Caleb’s sticker campaign had already been incredible.
“The support and everything, all the cards he’s receiving in the mail, it’s been incredible,” he said.
