Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation grant helps little girl achieve remission: "I'm so thankful for them"

Josie Selke is a happy baby.

In fact, she smiled and giggled throughout her entire interview with her mom and dad, Kaitlin and Nathan.

The almost 2-year-old has had a long road, but one that was made a little easier because of the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

At just 3 months old, Josie had a string of illnesses – RSV, pneumonia and the flu.

"The month after that, she started vomiting blood and then we rushed her to the ER and then they, of course, checked her blood and her blood counts were critical," said Kaitlin.

Then came the diagnosis: a rare pediatric leukemia.

"It was very difficult news, as you can imagine," Nathan said. "It's one of those things that you hear about, but you never think will happen to you."

"We did some doctor Googling and figured out that the standard treatment was a bone marrow transplant," Kaitlin explained, "and we kind of looked into that a little bit, and we saw how scary of a road that was."

That's where Alex's came in.

Josie was able to participate in a clinical trial, which started at the University of California San Francisco, one of the foundation's "Centers of Excellence."

A grant from Alex's meant Josie could have treatment close to home in Cincinnati.

"I'm so thankful for them," Kaitlin said, holding back tears. "It would have been so, so, so much worse if we didn't have this clinical trial for us."

Treatment was still tough on Josie and the whole family.

Over 470 days, she underwent nearly 400 doses of chemotherapy.

Thankfully, Josie didn't have too many side effects, except an extreme diaper rash.

"There were 60 days in a row that we had to go to Children's and meet with the head wound care doctor for her check-in on her skin," said Kaitlin.

There were many long days at the hospital, which was about an hour away from the family's home. And each time, Kaitlin took her young sons with her.

"We had always planned on homeschooling. So I did bring their books, bring games, bring toys. And we just all sit at the hospital together," she said.

On June 2, Josie rang the bell after achieving remission.

"Although it was difficult, we felt confident from the beginning that Josie was gonna be just fine," Nathan said.