Story Behind Mom’s Inspiring Photo of Two Little Girls With Cancer

This inspiring image of two little girls embracing each other at a children’s cancer hospital has gone viral. (Photo: Tazz Jones/Facebook)

It’s not unusual for mothers to post sweet photos of their children on social media. But one mom’s Facebook photo of her 5-year-old daughter hugging a friend is so heart-tugging, it’s gone viral since it was first posted on May 3.

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And no wonder: the image of two little girls leaning on each other for support in front of a window at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburghsays something about friendship, love, and the instant bond between children who have been stricken with cancer.

The photo, taken and uploaded by Tazz Jones, shows the moment her 5-year-old daughter, Maliyah, met Madelina deLuca for the first time at Children’s Hospital. 

Maliyah and Madelina were both undergoing treatment there for cancer. Since 2012, Maliyah has been battling stage IV neuroblastoma, which caused a cancerous tumor to grow in her abdomen and spread to her bone marrow. And 2-year-old Madelina was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2014.

Immediately after meeting, the two girls became fast friends. “She and Maliyah instantly clicked as if they knew one another for some time,” Jones told ABC News. They played together for a while before taking a break to sit and look out the window, quietly embracing, recalled Jones.

“At that moment I starred [sic] in awe!” Jones told ABC. “I wondered what they were feeling; what they were thinking and how they felt.” She asked Madelina’s parents if she could snap the photo. Later, she realized that it symbolized the connection children with cancer have.

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“Through sickness and health there will always be someone by your side weather [sic] you know them or not,” wrote Jones, according to ABC News. “My heart filled with joy and hope, and I knew that I cannot just be the only person to see this.”

In her caption for the photo, she encouraged viewers to repost and share it far and wide. “So many people have been telling me to submit this picture, get it blown up, and that it touched there [sic] hearts,” she wrote on Facebook. “This is the perfect example of love.” The two girls are not out of the woods yet, but clearly they have each other to lean on for support.

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