Greyson Luyando didn’t feel well when he returned to school last fall and initially, it was thought maybe he had a virus or Lyme disease.
But three weeks later, Greyson, a seventh grader at Seymour Middle School, his family was stunned to learned that he had acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
He fought it for eight months and spent most of that time, except for six weeks, at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. But even after he had a bone marrow transplant, donated by his older sister, the disease and subsequent treatment proved too much. Greyson died on May 26. He was 12 years old.
His mother Courtney had been a recreational runner for years with the thought of someday running a marathon. So to deal with her grief, and to raise money for the Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer, Courtney Luyando began to train for the 26.2-mile trek.
Saturday, she will run for Greyson, wearing a commemorative shirt, a bracelet that says “Greyson Strong” on it and a cross that his uncle gave him when he was baptized in the hospital, at the Eversource Hartford Marathon, which starts at 8 a.m. in Bushnell Park.
Courtney Luyando of Seymour will run the Eversource Hartford Marathon, her first, on Saturday in memory of her son Greyson, who died earlier this year from acute myeloid leukemia. (Photo courtesy of Courtney Luyando)
“I thought, ‘this is it, this is my time to be able to raise funds for a charity that was so meaningful to our family,’” said Courtney, who lives in Seymour with her daughter and husband. “The Tommy Fund was a help to us when we were in the hospital and a help to so many other families going through this situation.
“It gave me a reason to get up and do something every day. If I didn’t have that, I don’t know what the last few months would have looked like. I’m doing this for Greyson.”
Greyson, she said, was full of life “from day one.” He was never quiet, witty “beyond his years” and loved to be the center of attention. He had been cut from the sixth-grade basketball team but instead of being discouraged, he was working towards making the team the next year. He had a knack for forming meaningful relationships with many people he met, his mother said.
“He would find that one thing he had in common with people and he would build this amazing relationship based on the one commonality,” Courtney said. “He made a lasting impression on the doctors and nurses he met.”
The diagnosis was shocking but once the family learned about treatments, they were hopeful.
“We were going to get treatment and we were going to get this under control,” Courtney said. “Once we dove deeper, we discovered he had acute myeloid leukemia – it’s one of the most aggressive with the least best outlook and prognosis.
“But we never gave up. He was like, ‘I want to do what I need to do to fight this.’”
Greyson Luyando, 12, died in May after suffering from acute myeloid leukemia. His mother is running the Eversource Hartford Marathon in his honor and to raise money for the Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer. (Photo courtesy of Courtney Luyando)
After four rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments, Greyson was cleared for a bone marrow transplant in March.
“He had the transplant,” Courtney said. “The kid was cancer free. He beat cancer. It was just the side effects of the treatment. His lungs failed him in the end. He was on life support for a week. Before that, he was on ventilation for two weeks.
“We got to the point where it was time to make that choice. No parent should have to make that decision.”
The previous fall, Courtney had a conversation with a nurse about running a marathon.
“One of his nurses was running the New York City Marathon that year,” Courtney said. “I said, ‘You know, one day, I’m going to do it,’ and she said, ‘Next year, you and me, we’ll do New York, it’ll be a celebration. Greyson will have gotten through treatment and he’ll be on the other side of this.’ Unfortunately, that was not the case.”
But she thought about that and discovered the Tommy Fund was one of the charities associated with the Hartford Marathon and decided that she would do it.
She trained all through the heat of the summer. It was hard. On her long runs, she found herself reliving the agony of the last eight months.
“At first it was hard to not think about what we could have done different, what we should have done different – that’s where your mind goes, hindsight is 20-20,” she said. “But I got to the point where I need to look forward and do something to honor him and make sure his memory lives on.
“Those long runs, I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t know if I can do this,’ but Greyson pushed me through. He didn’t want to have cancer; he didn’t want to have rounds and rounds of chemo and be in the hospital – that was what pushed me.”
To donate to Courtney’s fundraiser for the Tommy Fund, go to https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/courtney-luyando.
