Anonymous Donor Gifts Magnifying Device to 7-Year-Old Girl Who Lost Vision to Brain Cancer

An anonymous donor supplied the funds for a low vision magnifying glass for a 7-year-old Oregon child who had brain cancer and lost most of her vision as a result.

In August of 2020, then 6-year-old Raelyn Miller-Ramirez began having issues with her balance and lacked interest in activities she was usually keen on, according to the nonprofit organization Team Cole. 

Her mother, Chantel Miller, told KGW8 that she took her daughter to the doctor, who suggested Raelyn had vertigo, but Chantel’s intuition suggested there was more to the situation. After a frightening night in September of 2020, Miller took her daughter to the emergency room, where she learned Raelyn was suffering from brain cancer, the outlet reports. 

Miller told KGW8: 

The doctor came in and sat down and said, ‘You’re not going home.’ They admitted us immediately to the PICU and two days later, they did the surgery to remove her brain tumor that was at the base of her cerebellum,””[The tumor] was blocking her spinal fluid from traveling back and forth and that was causing her balance to be off. That was causing her brain to swell, which crushed her optic nerve that made her lose her vision.

After her battle with cancer, Raelyn shows no evidence that she still has the disease, but she is now nearly completely blind, according to KGW8. 

“We have our struggle days where things are hard and she gets frustrated because she just wants to see again, but all we can do is put things in front of her to help her,” Miller told KGW. 

Raelyn’s new low vision magnifying glass was delivered to her home on Thursday thanks to nonprofit organization Campaign One at a Time, KGW8 reports. An anonymous donor gifted all of the funds necessary to purchase the device before the organization even launched Raelyn’s campaign. 

Campaign One at a Time’s Mission statement is “To ensure no child battling a severe illness ever feels alone.”

Raelyn’s new low vision magnifying glass will assist her in seeing some of the time, enabling her to write, read, and draw, according to KGW8.

“Her vision range is only about 6 inches from her face,” Miller told KGW8. “So that’s why the magnification is so incredible, because closer to her face, with the bigger letters, she can see it.”

“She’s my hero,” Miller told KGW8. “I don’t even know how to put it in words how proud of her I am. Every day she just keeps going.”

Miller says her daughter will “make the world a better place.”

“She’s going to go places and she’s going to make the world a better place,” Miller said. “We’re going to find it. This is going to help her tremendously.”