PHOTO: Parents carry son fighting cancer down hallway after hospital wedding
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two-year-old Logan holds onto his father as they walk alongside his mother down the hospital hallway. She's wearing a stunning white wedding dress.
It's a heartbreaking, breathtaking, and powerful photo of love, strength and bravery, and it was taken at the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
In the photo, Logan's parents were taking him back to his hospital room. He's battling Stage 4 Medulloblastoma, which he was diagnosed with last year.
Logan's grandmother, Megan Dempsey, snapped the photo after the couple's wedding in the hospital's chapel. "Celia and Geff decided to move their wedding plans up from June 2018 to January because it just felt right to them. The hospital staff went out of their way to make it so special for everyone," Dempsey said.
After his diagnosis, little Logan went through surgery to remove a tumor and after months of chemotherapy, the family celebrated. But the cancer came back after Thanksgiving, and he now has tumors on his brain and down his spinal chord.
The family is staying at the hospital during the week with Logan while he receives more intensive chemotherapy.
Logan's dad has just begun the training academy to become a police officer with the Columbus Police Department, Dempsey says. "This is also an intense time for him because the academy is so demanding. He and Celia have been living at the hospital during the week while their 4 year old son, Rowan, stays with an aunt and uncle. He is really the unsung hero of this story too," she said.
"This picture I snapped is of Celia and Geff taking Logan back to his room. It speaks to me of bravery, love and the ability to find joy and happiness in almost any situation," said Dempsey.
In the meantime, Logan loves dinosaurs, Paw Patrol, and remains the same sweet, happy boy he's always been, his grandmother said.
She says the family's hope is to help raise awareness for pediatric cancer. It's not rare, Dempsey says, and there's not enough cancer funding. "No child should have to endure this awful disease," Dempsey said.
The hospital also posted the powerful image on its Facebook page with the caption: "Sometimes when you can't come to the wedding, the wedding comes to you."