Toddler home for Christmas as he fights for his life

This Christmas is more special than most for Julie Major — against all odds, her two-year-old son Noah is healthy enough to come home for the holidays.

Noah has fought for his life since he was six months old. It was at that young age that he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

That diagnosis came as a shock to his family, after Noah had blood tests to find out what was causing a fever that would not go away.

Those blood tests revealed his white blood cell count was many times higher than it should have been.

“You don't believe it,” said his mother.

After his diagnosis Noah was treated at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, where he went through four rounds of chemotherapy before going into remission.

But in October 2014, only months after his diagnosis, his cancer relapsed.

Noah went through two more rounds of chemotherapy after his relapse, and had a bone marrow transplant in 2015.

He came home to Sudbury in May, and relapsed for a second time in July.

“The initial diagnosis wasn't as bad as hearing it when he relapsed twice,” Major said.

After his second relapse, his family had to make a difficult choice.

“They gave us the option to either stop all treatment, and try to make him comfortable for as long as we could, or we could try a couple more drugs and see if they work,” Major said.

They chose the second option, and got special permission from Health Canada to put Noah on an experimental drug not yet approved for general use in Canada.

While his doctors were not confident the drug would work, Noah ended up going into remission for the third time in his young life.

While his immune system remains weak, and he must stay in Toronto with his mother for regular tests, he has been healthy enough to return home for a few days during the holidays.

Major said they are hoping for the best, and if everything went perfectly, they could be back home on a more permanent basis as early as January.

But even with a return home, Noah would need to return to Toronto on a regular basis for regular tests and observation.

To help with the financial toll tied to so much regular travel – and living on only her husband's income for now – Major has set up a GoFundMe account to help cover their regular daily expenses.

While they've been able to stay at Toronto's Ronald McDonald House, they still need support for groceries, clothes and other expenses.