Quick-witted Moxie is always ready to make a new friend, whether it’s a kid she met at school, a nurse, or even someone on the street.

“She’s not so good with ‘stranger danger,’” joked her father, Dax.

The Realities of Living with Cancer

Moxie has been on and off chemo for Optic Glioma, a tumor on the optic nerve, since she was just six months old. For years she and her parents, Kristi and Dax, juggled a difficult chemo schedule and long hours of driving to receive specialized treatment.

In Fall 2015, the family made the move from California to Portland so Moxie could receive treatment at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. That’s when she met her Chemo Pal, Ashley.

A Friend for the Entire Family

Long infusions at the hospital left a rambunctious Moxie bored. That all changed when Ashley began showing up to the infusions.

“Ashley has been such a relief,” said Dax. “We didn’t have to be completely embedded in the treatment all the time. I was able to write or get a coffee and it gave Moxie something to look forward to, something she actually wanted to do.”

“Ashley genuinely loved coming to visit,” chimed in Kristi. “It’s nice when someone else loves your child. It’s so special.”

For Ashley, being a Chemo Pal meant being there for Moxie and the entire family.

“I remember telling Kristi to go to the bathroom or get a coffee, and she was like, ‘I can?!’ Just this idea that she could take a break was foreign and I was glad to be able to do that for her.

One of my favorite memories was bringing Twister for Moxie to play and she was hooked up to her infusion machine with tubes running from her to the machine. All of a sudden, she’s playing this with all her friends and all these tubes were literally getting twisted! But they were having a blast.”

For Moxie, having Ashley around was special too and if you ask her, Moxie will gladly admit that she considers Ashley one of her heroes.

“She is always keeping me happy and has always looked out for me. Now Ashley knows Twister is not a good game for the hospital,” Moxie joked.

The Gift of Music

Moxie is a MyMusicRx enthusiast with a flair for performance. Her favorite instruments include guitar, keyboard, drums, bass, xylophone, and of course, she loves to sing! She loves it so much in fact, that she has participated in MyMusicRx’s annual Bedstock online music festival three years in a row.

An Endless Capacity for Kindness

Today, at the age of eight, Moxie still has treatments in her future, but her unwavering positivity and strength are not to be underestimated. Without a doubt, Dax believes Moxie deserves the title of hero.

“I am still baffled by the way she stays happy. Everything she’s done and been through—she just keeps going. She has the power of the sun somewhere in there. She’s stronger than me,” said Dax.

Taking each day in stride, Moxie’s greatest attributes lie in her endless capacity for kindness, something Ashley saw firsthand.

“There were multiple instances when younger kids at the hospital were frightened and crying,” said Ashley. “Moxie didn’t think twice about telling them ‘it will be fine, and it only hurts for a minute… and then you get to play with toys! Ashley go get all the toys!’”