2022

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 Noah is an 8 year old boy who attends Swarts School in Monroe. In November of 2021 Noah was diagnosed with Undifferentiated Embryonal Sarcoma Of The Liver,  a rare form of childhood liver Cancer. He is currently being treated at St. Jude in Memphis Tennessee . He has already had four chemotherapy treatments and still has two to go and  will have to undergo a total of twenty radiation treatments he has already had six with fourteen to go.  He has also already had surgery to remove the tumor and 60% of the liver. 

You will be happy to know that Noah is back home and back at school with all of his current blood work and scans CLEAR of all cancer! AND. Passing school with all A's! 

  Alison is a 4 year old little girl who lives in Jonesboro Louisiana. Alison was diagnosed with All -B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in July of 2022 . She is Currently being Treated by the Amazing Doctors and staff of St Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis . She has already had countless lumbar punctures and 4 bone marrow aspirates in her short time in being a St. Jude patient . Alison and her parents have been back and forth between home and St. Jude since her diagnosis her and expect to be there and have treatment for at least another 2 years . 

 You will be happy to know that Ali will be having her end of treatment Bell Ringing Ceremony April 7th of 2025! 

 Cypress is a 6 year old little girl from West Monroe , La. She has two siblings Makailyn 11, and Beaux 9. She loves playing make-up with her older sister and video Games with her brother . Her Favorite thing to do while at home  with her mom is have nail/ spa days, cuddle with her cat Sheila , play on her tablet and have movie nights with her step dad Logan and eat popcorn. Her Favorite thing to do while at her dads house is to go to Grace Point Church on Sundays with her father and older sister Laken.   

Cypress was admitted to St. Jude Hospital on Monday December 18th 2023 from St. Marys in Shreveport. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma Cancer .( Nerve Cell Cancer). They were told to expect that they would initially be at St. Jude in Memphis for six to eight weeks for chemotherapy treatments and following that they will be traveling back and forth between Memphis and Shreveport for the next year and a half. She did her first round of chemo on December 21st, a central line and biopsy procedure on the 26th of December. Cypress and her Mother were finally able to be discharged to outpatient on January 4th. On January 11th she Started her Second round of chemo, and as long as all goes well she will be able to come home for a few months , only having to travel to Shreveport to St. Marys for her next 3 rounds of chemo treatments. They will return to St. Jude in 4-5 Months for her stem cell transplant .

 Recent update from Taylor Cypress's Mom .  Cypress’s  recent scans from  came back! So when she was first diagnosed and they did scans, the cancer was EVERYWHERE. They can see where the cancer is based on the “brightness” of the scans. So when she was first diagnosed, she was at 19… and now she’s at 2!!!! AND they only see cancer in her abdomen and pelvic area! Which is mainly where it was at first. THE CANCER IS ALMOST GONE!!!!!!! I can’t believe she is almost cancer free.   We will be done with this round of antibodies Wednesday morning, then we will be headed home to finish out the rest of this months treatment. We come back to Memphis in February for our last inpatient stay/round 5 of antibodies. Round 6 of the immunotherapy treatments will be in March, all she has that month is accutane for two weeks and then another set of scans to see if she’s cancer free!   I’m so thankful for St Jude and all of the nurses/doctors that have helped my girl beat this! This place is amazing!  and I’m so thankful for all of the prayer/love/support we have had for the last year! A few more months and Cypress is free!!! 

Hello everyone! I would like to start by saying how honored our family is for this opportunity.  

Colby and I met through mutual friends in college 12 years ago and have been married for 6 of those. I work at St. Francis Medical Center as a nurse practitioner in the newborn nursery. Colby owns his own business as a licensed general contractor. We have 2 fur babies. Cash is our 12 year old man yellow lab and Salsa is our 3 year old wild child English Springer. We welcomed our first baby girl, Scottie Kate, in July of 2022. I don’t know who has more energy, Scottie or Salsa. Scottie is our sassy, silly, independent girl that stole our hearts from the moment she entered this world. We always knew we wanted one more kiddo so in the summer of 2024 we found out we were expecting baby girl number 2, Lillian Rae! In September, we were told that Lillie’s anatomy scan showed multiple abnormalities. We were sent to Baton Rouge the very next day to meet with Maternal Fetal Medicine. At that visit it was confirmed that our sweet Lillie girl has spina bifida. We were referred to The Fetal Center in Houston, Texas to see if we qualified for fetal surgery to repair Lillie’s myelomeningocele in utero. After 3 days of testing and surgical consults, it was determined that Lillie did not qualify for fetal surgery. The benefits of surgery did not out weigh the risks in Lillie’s specific situation. We were instructed to relocate to Houston at 32 weeks to be closely monitored by The Fetal Center until delivery at 37 weeks. Our C-section is scheduled for January 16th. Lillie will be taken to NICU after delivery and have surgery to repair her myelomeningocele shortly after birth. We don’t know what the future looks like for Lillie but we know that we will love her with all of our hearts and raise her to know that God has a special plan for her and her life and even though we may not understand, we have to have faith and give it all to Him. This journey has been a roller coaster of emotions and I know we are just getting started. We are so lucky to have such supportive families and friends holding our hands through it all. Since Lillie’s diagnosis we have received an overwhelming amount of love. It’s hard for me to describe in words how much each and every phone call, text message, card, or gift has meant to Colby and I. For Lillie to be chosen as this year’s beneficiary for Rides on the River is just another example of how blessed we are in life and we have God to thank for it all.