Over the summer, Charlie showed another side of his magnetic personality, his bravery. After suffering headaches, a MRI scan found a tumor the size of a baseball on Charlie’s brain. Following surgery the pathology report confirmed it was cancerous.
“There’s nothing they can say to you to prepare you for them saying your child has cancer, or a brain tumor,” Stephanie recounted. “There’s never an option not to fight as hard as we could.”
And fight they did. Following surgery Charlie prepared for six weeks of radiation. He wrapped up his treatment in mid-October, months after the initial diagnosis. Throughout it all, Charlie never wavered from the funny, caring, brave kid he’s always been.
“Charlie is one of the toughest kids I know,” Ryan Shomers, Charlie’s dad, described. “The fact that he took everything as it came, without complaining, without feeling sorry for himself, without ever being depressed. He was positive through this whole experience and you can’t help but be amazed by it.”
"Before this all happened when I pictured him, if you told me he was about to be like this, I would have said, ‘no that’s not my brother,’" Anna shared. "But now it’s so clear he can be (that inspiration), he can do anything he sets his mind to.”
Charlie received treatment through The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, both a part of the RWJBarnabas Health hospital network.
“Words can’t describe how much they meant to us and how supportive they were,” Ryan recounted. “How they walked us through everything step by step, how they were there to support us with whatever we needed. Whether it was information, whether it was therapy, anything at all.”
At the end of summer, the Shomers family was presented with a unique opportunity for Charlie to join the Devils Hockey Fights Cancer celebrations in late November. The family jumped at the opportunity.
“They found out about my son Charlie,” Ryan described. “Talked to his doctors and said how he would be a great person to come and be a spokesperson for all those who are going through this as well. To show them you can fight cancer, you can beat it, and to never give up hope.”
“End of summer, beginning of September, it was just amazing that the opportunity came to us,” Stephanie said. “Couldn’t say no. It’s a core memory day, making memories together.”
“It’s been the best, absolutely the best,” Ryan also shared on the experience. “It’s something that hardly anybody ever gets to experience. The fact that they said your family, not just Charlie can go, but the whole family, his cousins, his grandparents, can all be here to enjoy this moment. (It’s incredible) that they opened up their doors, to our family and said ‘come, enjoy this day, you’ve earned it.’”
Charlie’s day had many surprises and core memory moments, including meeting his favorite player.
“I signed the contract, and met Jack Hughes, he signed my own jersey, puck, and hockey stick,” Charlie recounted. “It was awesome and amazing, I can’t describe it any other way.”
