Jim Hickey is a man on a mission. 76 miles to be exact. It's a mission that started with the death of his father.
"My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994," Hickey said. "If that wasn’t hard enough my brother, at 41, six months later, was also diagnosed with prostate cancer."
Thankfully, Hickey's brother lived. But he knew he had to turn the heartache of losing their father into purpose.
"That did something to me," said Hickey. "I really don’t know what it was but I guess being 'here' is what it did."
Here on the dirt roads outside Larkspur, Colorado. It's about the halfway point on his walk from Colorado Springs to Aurora. It's the 7th walk he's done across the country for a child battling cancer.
This time it's for two-year-old Braxton Hankins.
"He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia," said Braxton's mom Britney Hankins.
It's a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, stage 4. That was in July of 2021. Since then, he and his family have been in a fight for his life.
"He has treatment that consists of chemo, spinal taps, blood and platelet transfusion," Hankins said.
A fight grounded in faith. Home videos she shared with us show Britney praying with Braxton as he is sitting in a hospital gown on a bed.
"Okay let's pray, say thank you, Jesus," said Britney to Braxton as she prays on the video.
"Thank you, Jesus," replies Braxton.
Another home video shows Braxton wearing a cross on a necklace. Britney asks Braxton about his cross and he replies, "Jesus died for me."
Britney grew up with a grandfather who was a preacher. The faith he taught her is now being passed on to her two little boys and to the community through their Facebook page called Prayers for Braxton.
"If you asked me, I would just say he’s covered in prayer," Hankins said.
Braxton is now in remission but will have to continue to get spinal taps and chemo for the next year and a half.
"If you were to stop treatment right now the second he entered remission it would come right back," said Hankins.
The battle was made a little easier by the kindness of a stranger.
"People say you’re not getting anything out of it, but I am," said Hickey. "I’m getting it in here and that’s all that matters for me. It’s putting meaning to my father’s pain."
The family says the best way you can help children like Braxton is to donate blood and platelets that are used during transfusions.
The family has also started a GoFundMe page to buy a travel trailer. They tell News5 they don't need money for Braxton's care but his mom wants to buy a trailer that she can take to the children's hospital in Aurora as a place of rest and prayer for other families battling childhood cancer.
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