Get ready to shed some happy tears.
This past school year was a tough one for 7-year-old Sophi Eber. The first-grade student was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma in February 2016.
When Eber began the first-grade last fall, she had her photo taken. In the image, Eber smiles wide, despite a having a large feeding tube inserted through her nose. Due to chemotherapy treatments, she’s lost her eyebrows and every inch of hair on her head. Two weeks ago, Eber posted an image of herself holding up the photo. The feeding tube is gone, her hair has completely grown back, but that same bright and hopeful smile remains intact.
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As noted by the Huffington Post, little Eber is now cancer-free. “Here's your feel good picture of the day! We received this from Sophi's teachers this afternoon,” read the caption on Facebook. "What a difference a school year makes! This picture shows how much your girl has gone through and she continues to just blow us away…her strength, determination, and amazing attitude inspires us! So grateful to have had the opportunity to know her and be her teachers!"
In an interview with HuffPo, Sophi’s mother Bethany Eber shared that her daughter “had six rounds of chemo, 14 rounds of radiation, a nine-hour surgery to remove a tumor and five rounds of immunotherapy,” this was all within the span of one year. Due to a high chance of relapse Sophi flies from her Kansas City home to New York City every three months for checkups and scans. “Once you’re cancer-free, you’re not done,” Bethany told HuffPost. “She has to keep going.”
After setting up Facebook pages and posting an image about Sophi on Reddit, the first grader has received an outpour of support from strangers and loved ones. Considering how drastically Sophi’s journey changed in the course of a year, it’s not hard to see why the adolescent would inspire so many people young and old.