Hi my name is Karter I am 2 ½ years old. On Sept 30th, 2016 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma cancer.

My daddy and mommy are Karl and Laurie Strand. I have the greatest little brother, Maverick, he is 11 months old. He is my best friend. My mommy and daddy brought me home from the hospital when I was 3 months old and adopted me. They have given me the best life and the biggest family to love me. Our village.


Although I am too little to read or write, my Aunt Jenny and Aunt Kiki (Kerianne) helped me write this message to you.

My favorite things to do are spending time with all my family and friends, playing in the water, going to the beach, boogie boarding with my daddy, singing and dancing with mommy, going to Publix on Saturday mornings with daddy, playing with cars and trucks with my Maverick and waiting for big garbage truck that stops by every few days.

A week ago my mommy took me to the doctor because I wasn’t feeling well. I was throwing up, had a fever and my tummy hurt so they thought it was just the flu. They ran some tests but when they felt my tummy it seemed that my spleen was enlarged. So they ran a few more tests including one for mono but it all came back negative. After all the tests were negative, they thought it would be best that they take me to the hospital.

We went to the emergency room at St. Mary's Children's Hospital on Tuesday, Sept28th, 2016. They immediately did an ultrasound and told my mommy and daddy they saw a mass on my kidney and we would be staying the night. Those words were scary to them.

That night they ran a CT Scan and they transferred me to a new room. As we were walking through the halls, my parents didn’t even realize I was being admitted to a room in the Oncology Unit. They walked right passed the sign not realizing a thing.

The next morning, the Oncologist came in and told my mommy and daddy that the CT Scan came back and saw that my adrenal gland, renal vein were also being affected.