For Brockton's Kailyn Hewitt, life is more than a cancer story

BROCKTON — Kailyn Hewitt has lived through a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer for most of her life. She was first diagnosed at 5 years old , and, after treatment, it came back when she was 11.

But Kailyn, now 17, prefers to describe herself in other ways.

She sits at a table in an empty classroom at her school, PROMISE College and Career Academy in Brockton, one day in November. A plushie of a character from the Sanrio universe – known for Hello Kitty – hangs from her backpack, and she wears a lanyard decorated with characters from Demon Slayer, a popular action-fantasy anime that is one of her favorites.

She says she enjoys lying in bed watching animated TV shows. She also loves to bake, especially cookies and brownies, and is thinking about attending Massasoit Community College to study the discipline.

According to people close to Kailyn, she doesn't let the fact that she was diagnosed with Anaplastic Ependymoma when she was five determine who she is today.

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Her mom, Alison Paltoo, said, "I find it sometimes amazing how she doesn't let it define her, that she has found this unique way of living – in a way, knowing she has it, but not letting that be the only thing people see."

"I didn't think I would be here right now, her about to graduate high school," Paltoo added, explaining that Kailyn was given a five-to-10-year life expectancy when was first diagnosed.

"It, like, kills me how far she's come," she said.

The long journey of treatment

Paltoo discusses her daughter's illness with expertise, sharing dates and medical details with precision.

Just four days after her diagnosis, on August 23, 2013, Kailyn went into surgery – the first of three brain surgeries. She also underwent proton radiation for seven weeks, five days per week.

"It was, every day, we were getting up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. to drive into Boston," Paltoo said, because Boston Mass General Hospital was the only nearby hospital with the proper equipment.

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Kailyn's story received attention from the news. A 2014 article described her case: "She has experienced three brain surgeries in less than two months, a blood clot, a spinal fluid leak, an infection, two months of proton radiation therapy, post-traumatic stress disorder and physical therapy."

The article described how, with medical bills piling up, money from friends and strangers helped keep the family going. Cops for Kids with Cancer gave the family $5,000. When the bank threatened to foreclose on their house, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute paid their mortgage for two months.

In June 2014, Paltoo and a friend organized a block party for Kailyn's birthday. The goal was raising money for the Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network Foundation.

Paltoo recalled that block party, which she said over 300 people attended. "There was horses. The firetrucks came. The mayor showed up. We did a mass butterfly release … on the baseball field at the Downey."

But Anaplastic Ependymoma is an aggressive disease that is likely to recur.

In February 2020, it returned, and Kailyn again underwent surgery and a long bout of radiation. Since her initial diagnosis, researchers had come up with a way to do chemotherapy for her type of cancer. So, on top of all the other treatments, she also did chemotherapy for four, three-week long cycles. Her time in the hospital coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the middle of COVID, I was in the hospital everyday, so I hardly even recognized COVID, to be honest," Paltoo said. "The only real difference, for me, was that, when we were in the hospital, we had to wear masks all the time, and, when the nurses came in, they were dressed up like space people, astronauts."

At the time, Kailyn was in middle school, and Paltoo said Kailyn somehow stayed on top of her work. "Basically, we'd go to radiation treatment in the mornings, and then she would come home, and she'd get on her computer and she'd do whatever was left of work for the day," Paltoo said, adding that Kailyn had a tutor.

Every term since – including all of middle school – Paltoo said Kailyn has been on the honor roll.

'Powerful presence'

These days, Kailyn's teachers and classmates at PROMISE respect her a great deal.

Eric Smith, an English teacher, described Kailyn as having a "powerful presence," noting that she has a "beyond-her-years, dry, kind of sarcastic" type of humor.

Four of her peers, three who are just classmates, and one who is her best friend, shared their admiration of her with The Enterprise.

They described how she stands up for kids who are being bullied, is the first to answer questions teachers ask, and tells kids who are slacking off to stay on task.

"She's definitely the smartest one in our class, 100%," Camori Hill, one of her classmates, said.

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'I owe it to my mom'

Asked why she gets such good grades in school, Kailyn thought for a long time. "I kind of feel like I owe it to my mom because she does so much. It's just one less thing for her to worry about."

Paltoo said Kailyn doesn't really talk about the experience of having cancer – while she was undergoing treatment, or even now. The first time she heard Kailyn share her outlook on it was in a poem, at Promise's Slam Poetry Exhibition her freshman year there.

"I cried through the whole thing," Paltoo said.

Here is the poem, entitled 'My Zodiac Sign is Cancer'

In 2021, it was estimated that 15,590 children/Ages 0 to 19 will be diagnosed with cancer/And 1,780 will die of the disease in the U.S./I am one of the lucky survivors

My biggest accomplishment is surviving cancer/My zodiac sign is cancer/The traits of my sign are nurturing, sensitive/compassionate self-protective/security-seeking and offering/Loving, and displaying a goofy, ingratiating sense of humor

These traits do not define me/Yes, I can be sensitive, but I have thick skin/And yes, I nurture the ones I love/And yes, I am compassionate, but cancer is not/Cancer feels nothing/Cancer seeks security in me and others/To infect us

I offer others security/Finally, my humor, it has stuck with me through all out of it/And has even grown stronger alongside me/None the less these cancer experiences have shaped who I am today

This story is part of an occasional series about interesting and inspiring people involved with education in Brockton. If there's a person you think The Enterprise should write about, please reach out to education reporter Jacob Posner at JPosner@enterprisenews.com

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Kailyn Hewitt, battling cancer since childhood, won't let it define her