CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Adventure and delight thrive inside 6-year-old Cayson Rodriguez
But, so does a rare type of childhood cancer.
Cayson has A.L.L which is a form of Leukemia,” said Chelsea Rodrigues, Cayson’s mom.
Cayson was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in September 2018 just days after returning from a family vacation in San Antonio.
“It was absolutely devastating because you think your child is going to be or live this life of not having to worry about his health,” said Rodriguez.
“It was kind of sad cause everybody in my school had to take a picture altogether and they did a heart,” said Cayson.
The Rodriguez family traveled 5 days a week from Ingleside to Corpus Christi so that Cayson could receive chemotherapy.
Today Cayson is in the maintenance phase of his treatment and only receives treatment once every two weeks.
The family's travel expenses, bills, and treatment costs have added up.
And considering their need, the non-profit, Battlin’ BBQ, has fired up its eagerness to help.
“It gets to be a lot and it starts to add up and eventually people lose jobs it’s hard for both family members to work so when we got selected it was kind of a breath of fresh air,” said Rodriguez.
The organization has chosen to sponsor Cayson for their August 3rd BBQ competition. 100% of the money from the competition and horseshoe tournament will go to the Rodriguez family.
“Get money and put it in the bank and get some more money out the bank, right mom,” said Cayson.
Cayson will continue to receive treatment until February 2022.
“Thank you for supporting me and thank you for the benefit,” said Cayson.
The "Battlin’ BBQ" event takes place August 2nd and 3rd at N.O. Simmons Park in Ingleside.
There will be raffles, live bands, and vendors.
There is also still room to register for the competition. You can register by visiting: https://www.battlinbbq.com/bbq-cook-off-registry-and-rules
