Her perseverance is truly inspirational and she has overcome many tremendous feats. After being on ECMO, Jackie had to relearn how to walk, talk, and how to do everyday tasks.

Jackie received a Bone Marrow Transplant on October 18th, 2019. Her older brother saved her life, acting as her donor when there was not a single match on the national registry. She was put on dialysis shortly after her transplant for about 2 weeks and then was finally released home. She was inpatient for six very long months. Jackie has had nine rounds of chemotherapy in total, one week of radiation therapy, and three Donor Lymphocyte Infusions with one more to go.

Jackie and her family celebrated her 12th birthday with an Icing Smiles Cake provided by Sugar Angel Maziel, whose work was truly out of this world! It was a fun and imaginative galaxy themed cake. She couldn’t have a normal party due to Covid-19, but here at Icing Smiles, we’re glad to be able to celebrate amazing kids like Jackie, even if outer space-themed parties and cakes take longer to “planet”!

With smiles + cake,

Olivia Graupmann

Icing Smiles Blog Writer

In August of 2018, Israel Graves was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia after a trip to the pediatrician about an odd bruise and instantly his world was turned upside down.

Since his diagnosis, the journey through chemotherapy and hospital visits have been difficult for both Israel and his mother, Cara, as a single parent. But they have both worked hard to bolster his fight and strive through every obstacle.

Israel has not had much to look forward to this past year, and celebrating his birthday was not looking like it would be any different to the year he has had so far. However, turning thirteen is a milestone all on its own– and Israel was more than deserving of a genuine moment of surprise and celebration! So, Israel was given two unexpected but exciting surprises for his birthday, that was sure to make anyone smile.

His first surprise was being able to celebrate his birthday at home rather than having to spend it at the hospital. The second was receiving an incredible birthday cake from one of our marvelous Sugar Angels, Jackie at Edible Art Charlotte. As Cara shared, “Receiving this gift from Icing Smiles and its volunteer bakers was figuratively and literally ‘the icing on the cake!’”. Cara worked secretly, delaying their departure from the hospital so Israel could come home to his incredible birthday cake just at the right moment as a surprise. The cake is decorated in a Fortnite theme, a popular online game, and is the perfect representation of celebrating a moment to the fullest, as players can choose personalized dances for celebrating after winning each battle. So, like the Fortnite characters after winning every battle, Israel got his moment to celebrate. You can hear more about Israel’s journey and support him here.

This post written with love and smiles by Icing Smiles blogger Candyce Palmer.