‘I’ll make it.’ Tiny cancer patient’s climb up the stairs inspires thousands
Just over a month ago, her dad says, she was running up the stairs to go to bed.
Now Colin Dunlap’s 5-year-old daughter, Darran, moves a lot slower up those stairs. She was diagnosed last month with leukemia.
The chemo, as chemo does, has pummeled her tiny body.
But those stairs? She’s still determined to climb them, all by herself.
my daughter's body is crushed by chemo but she won't let me carry her up steps to bed. "I'll make it,"she says each night-and does. so tough pic.twitter.com/4xe9VecqI0
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) December 12, 2016
When Dunlap, a sports talk radio host on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, posted that video of Darran valiantly summiting those stairs in her fuzzy, leopard-print slippers on Sunday night, people on social media cheered her on.
By Monday, the 27-second clip of Darran’s journey had been retweeted more than 43,000 times and had been “loved” nearly 110,000 times.
@colin_dunlap One strong little girl. She's going to beat this. ❤️
— Norman D. Golden ll (@NormanGoldenll) December 12, 2016
Dunlap posted the clip to motivate others to “press on” through their own challenges.
may that previous tweet give you some motivation to press on;garner some will to do something you think is too tough. she does that for me.
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) December 12, 2016
just over a month ago Darran was sprinting up those steps to bed-quite literally had to tell her to slow down.
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) December 12, 2016
She will sprint again.
Last month he wrote a thank-you letter to Pittsburgh for its support of his family. Darran’s diagnosis came as a shock.
“There’s no need to draw it out or bore you with the details, I’ll just shoot it straight. Our 5-year-old daughter Darran was diagnosed with cancer last week,” he wrote on Nov. 14.
“She went to Children’s Hospital complaining of hip pain; they told us she has leukemia.
“It isn’t ideal, but all we can do is push through the chemotherapy she’s already started, wake each day to fight the one in front of us, be positive and press on.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 1:51 PM with the headline "‘I’ll make it.’ Tiny cancer patient’s climb up the stairs inspires thousands."