KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Independence. Share your story idea with Claire.
As a six-year-old Oak Grove boy is fighting brain cancer, the community is coming together to support his family.
Cru Bennett, 6, is a first-grader from Oak Grove. This school year, however, Cru is spending his days at St. Jude’s in Memphis, receiving treatment for two brain tumors.
“One (tumor) has set dormant as of now. It grew, stopped, but it also has been there long enough that it has all these brain fibers running through it,” said Karla Garrett, Cru’s grandma. “The second tumor, when we stopped a trial medication he had been on it like fertilized the tumor. So once we stopped the trial medication, because it wasn't doing anything to help, it caused the tumor to grow rapidly.”
Cru went for emergency surgery three weeks ago to dissect some of that second tumor, which started to grow back. Thankfully, his grandma said there hasn’t been any new growth in over a week.
Going to St. Jude’s meant that Cru’s parents had to stop working and leave their three other children back in Oak Grove with family.
“They just had to just pick up and go. And we've all tried to pick up the slack. But, you know, I mean, it gets hard, so without the support of the community, I don't know what we would do,” said Garrett.
The latest community support comes from Catfish Charlie’s, a restaurant in Wellington. This weekend, they are donating 20% of all sales, matching 100% of direct donations from patrons, giving all proceeds from Cru’s Cocktail sales, and putting on a Sunday car and bike show to raise more donations.
“Honestly, we love to help in any way possible, coming from a very small town community where everyone is always helping out,” said Cosette Spencer, general manager. “But this one hit very close to home, as the owners in our family here have a first grader and a six-year-old that is a classmate of Cru.”
Cru’s grandma, his “Mimi”, said she has already lost one grandchild to childhood cancer. She also lost her mother to brain cancer. For their family to go through this again is trying emotionally and financially.
“It’s not just about the money. It really fills you with a sense of joy and just makes you feel so blessed when people come out and you see all of the support,” said Garrett. “You see people with t-shirts on for him, and you know the Cru bracelets.”
Garrett said Cru has entered a new treatment at St. Jude’s, but the tumor he has is not acting like it should. That is why doctors are having to approach it differently.
If you would like to follow Cru’s journey or donate to his family, you can join their Facebook page.
