Kinsley

Kinsley Adelynn Wilkerson

On September 11th 2018, at 3.5 years old, Kinsley was diagnosed with  Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (AT/RT).

When Kinsley was diagnosed, she seemed like an otherwise healthy little girl, but was complaining of sporadic neck pain which had progressively worsened over the prior six weeks. Kinsley underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor and started treatment at UCSF Benioff Children’s hospital two hours away from her home in Sacramento, CA.  In all, Kinsley spent nearly 150 days inpatient at UCSF and many of those were spent in the Pediatric ICU. Her initial treatment included aggressive multi-agent chemotherapy (ACNS0333) followed by focal proton radiation (at Mass General Hospital in Boston MA).

Kinsley continues to fight cancer to this day.  To date she has suffered four relapses (January 2020, July 2020, September 2021, and May 2022) which have led to more nearly continuous treatment for more than half of her life (MEMMAT, CSI, tazemetostat, nivolumab/ipilimumab + tazemetostat, & gemcitabine). Most recently, Kinsley was treated with Gamma knife radiation on June 14, 2022 to treat 3 new tumors in her brain.

In spite of her challenging life path, Kinsley is an otherwise happy, bright, and loving seven year old child. Her best days are spent playing with her two best friends - her brother Ryland (10), her sister Avila (12) and her dog, Pismo (2.5) - who absolutely adore her.  She loves being with her cousins and friends, playing barbies, dancing, swimming, playing baseball, listening to Jojo Siwa, kayaking and SUPing. Kinsley has endured a lot of side effects from her treatments, but will often say “today was the best day of my life”.