An 11-year-old girl fighting terminal brain cancer just told her dad something he says he will never forget:
“I don’t want to know if I’m dying. Just let me live my life.”
Katie’s dad, Austin, reached out to me today with the update this family has been praying would never come.
Katie’s tumor has progressed.
For the past year, many of you have followed this little girl’s fight on my page against DIPG, an aggressive brain cancer with an incredibly difficult prognosis.
Austin says doctors told the family today that while the area of Katie’s pons that was previously treated with radiation remains unchanged, the tumor is now growing in new areas of her brain.

Doctors are stopping her clinical trial medication.
Katie is being admitted to the hospital for the next couple of nights, where doctors will perform a full MRI of her brain and spine instead of waiting for the one scheduled next month.
And her family is now being introduced to the Advanced Disease Team and Palliative Care Team.
Those words are crushing for a parent.
But what Katie said next is what I want you to remember.
Austin asked his daughter a question no father should ever have to ask an 11-year-old.
If the news was bad, did she want him to tell her?
Katie said no.
“I don’t want to know if I’m dying. Just let me live my life.”
Her dad told me:
“This is the most brave thing I’ve ever heard from a child’s mouth.”
This is the same little girl whose family told me just weeks ago, “We might have a death sentence… but we’re living it up.”

They’ve taken Katie camping.
They’ve gone on road trips.
They’ve made memories wherever and whenever they could.
Then, earlier this month, millions of people learned Katie’s story after Jimmy Darts crossed paths with her family at a Walmart.
That chance encounter led to a new car and an extraordinary outpouring of more than $400,000 to help a family that had spent so much trying to save their daughter.
But Austin told me today that what matters most to him isn’t the attention Katie’s story has received.
It’s what his daughter has done with it.
“The awareness she has brought to DIPG herself is truly amazing. I’m truly honored to be this girl’s daddy.”
Tonight, this family is asking us to stand with Katie again.
Not because they’re giving up.
Austin made that very clear.
“My heart is broken, but we are not giving up on my daughter.”
They are praying for a miracle while doctors determine exactly how far this disease has progressed and what options remain.
So pray for Katie.
Pray for answers from these new scans and for the doctors trying to find another path forward.
And while her family fights desperately for more tomorrows, leave them some strength for the one thing they still have in their hands:
Right now.