Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Two-Year-Old Blakely Koenig Continues to Battle Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
By Megan Koenig // September 7, 2025
Her Mom, Megan Koenig, Talks About the Journey
Blakely Koenig was diagnosed with cancer in August of 2024. She continues to fight and battle this dreadful disease. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and for the family, it’s not just about gold ribbons, statistics, or campaigns. It’s about their daughter, Blakely.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month — a month that now carries a meaning we never expected. For us, it’s not just about gold ribbons, statistics, or campaigns. It’s about our daughter, Blakely.
At just 2 years old, Blakely has faced more than most adults will in a lifetime. She was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August of 2024, and since then, our lives have been a mix of hospital stays, IV poles, chemo drips, feeding tubes, and countless blood transfusions. It’s a life we never imagined for our little girl — yet somehow, through it all, she shines.
Blakely has a spirit that amazes us every day. Even after long days of chemo or procedures, she still wants to play, laugh, and love big. Just recently, she was zipping around on her balance bike, chasing our dog and giggling like any other toddler. Moments like that remind us that childhood cancer, while so heavy, cannot take away her light.
This past year has been full of challenges, but also full of gratitude. We’ve learned to celebrate the “boring” days — days without ER visits, without scary side effects, without new complications. To us, boring is beautiful. Boring means she’s home, she’s playing, and she’s living the kind of normal childhood we cling to so tightly.
But here’s the truth: childhood cancer is not rare. It’s the leading cause of death by disease in children, yet less than 4% of federal cancer research funding is directed to children’s cancers. That means families like ours are fighting with treatments that are decades old, harsh, and often designed for adults, not children. Our kids deserve better. They deserve safer, more effective treatments. They deserve more than 4%.
We share Blakely’s story not because it’s easy — in fact, reliving it is hard. But we share it because we believe her light, and the light of every child fighting cancer, can spark change. We want people to see the reality of childhood cancer, to understand that awareness is more than wearing gold in September. Awareness means action — donating blood, supporting research, helping families, and spreading the word so that no child fights in silence.
Blakely is our warrior, our joy, and our heart. She has taught us more about strength and resilience than we ever thought possible. She is proof that even in the darkest valleys, light can shine. We hope her story inspires you, too.
This September, we ask you to remember children like Blakely. Pray for them, support them, honor them, and fight for them. Because while cancer is part of our story, it will never define who Blakely is. She is laughter. She is joy. She is pure light.
And as long as she fights, we will keep fighting — and we will keep sharing her story, because in the middle of so much darkness, she is the brightest little light we know.
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