Strong like Jaxson. Memorial planned for hero 7-year-old who died of rare cancer

A memorial service to celebrate the life of a brilliant and bright 7-year-old from Phillipsburg who died from a rare form of pediatric cancer in October will happen on Saturday.

Services will begin at noon inside the Phillipsburg Alliance Church. A procession to the Northampton Memorial Shrine in Palmer Township is scheduled to follow. The memorial service will be open to the public.

Jaxson Rand was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma on St. Patrick's day, just after his seventh birthday, his family said. The condition is a rare and inoperable form of brain cancer that affects about 300 children in the United States each year, according to the National Cancer Institute .

Rand underwent numerous treatments at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he received 32 rounds of radiation; 13 rounds of proton radiation therapy; and extensive physical, occupational and speech therapy, his obituary states . He lost use of the right half of his body and his speech was diminished, but "he never allowed this diagnosis of terminal brain cancer to hold him back. He remained positive and bold during his fight," the obituary says.

He enjoyed playing sports and was full of love, his family and friends said.

Jaxson Rand underwent end of life treatment with his mother Carisa Rand by his side on Oct. 10.

"He had a smile that lit up any space and just radiated around him. ... He loved Jesus first and his mama second and his [twin sister] was a close third," his family wrote in his obituary.

In the past year, friends, neighbors and strangers rallied around the unwavering 7-year-old and his family.

On May 19, Rand was welcomed home after an extensive hospital stay by a hundred-man parade of neighbors and given a proclamation to have a day named for him. A reporter noted, at the time, that the child appeared unchanged, from his usual smiling and bubbly self, aside from a new scar behind his left ear.

After the proclamation, he said "thank you," to the table of town officials and promptly asked his mother if he could go home and eat dinner.

Phillipsburg School District bestowed Rand with two honorary degrees: a middle school and a high school diploma; and Rand was named honorary captain of the Phillipsburg Stateliners for one night, given a varsity letter and allowed to walk the field with the team.

The Phillipsburg Freemasons adopted Rand into the order in September.

"In all my years, I have never seen the community come together like this," Town Council President Pete Marino told lehighvalleylive.com . Marino, a lifelong resident of Phillipsburg, survived the polio outbreak in 1949 as a child, when he was four years old. The disease cost him his left arm and leg, but some of his classmates were not as fortunate, he told a reporter.

"This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to be from P'burg," he said.

In a final act of defiance against his disease, Jaxson became a donor to Gift from a Child . The program saw Jaxson's tumor tissue be donated to science and the ongoing search for a cure.

"Even in his absence he will continue to make a difference for other children and families who will be dealt this unfair blow by pediatric brain cancer," his mother said.

A community group committed to supporting children diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma called Jaxson Strong Fight Against DIPG was started by Carisa Rand this year. An entry on the group's Facebook page called Jaxson a hero who "brought a broken community together."

Carisa Rand asked for donations to be sent to the Ashley Lauren Foundation in his memory to help other families fighting pediatric cancer.