After a long childhood cancer journey, this family is embracing life – and dancing

For childhood cancer families, the journey never ends. Even when children are cured, there can be side effects from the treatment, and the possibility of a relapse is always lurking. 

For the Isaacs family, life can be chaos. 

But that has become pretty normal for this family of five. Life has thrown them more than one curveball. 

"I remember my mommy saying I felt more tired," Emilia says about the beginning of the journey.

When Emilia was about two years old, she had on-and-off fevers for about two weeks, her mom said.

They went to the doctor, and the next day, the family received an alarming message. 

"She told us to take Emilia to the children's hospital," mom Kathrin Isaacs said.

Emilia had cancer — B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

"You hear kids can get cancer, but you never thought it would be us," Kathrin said.

It was the day before Thanksgiving 2021. Emilia started treatment immediately. 

"The worst day ever," Emilia recalled.

The first month of leukemia treatment, called induction, is intense, and there were complications. 

"She couldn't walk anymore after three weeks," Kathrin said. 

"And I just remember ... thinking to myself, just not even get to the next day, just get to next hour," Emilia's dad said.

By Christmas Eve, Emilia was in remission.

But treatment wasn't finished. In fact, treatment lasted about 2.5 years. 

And there were more complications — pneumonia that required a breathing tube, lack of appetite and a feeding tube.

"You didn't have time to think. You're just really in survival mode," Kathrin said.

Emilia finished treatment.

"We even celebrated, she rang the bell," Kathrin said. "We actually had 19 months of thinking this life, this cancer life is behind us."

That all changed in October.

"The one time she woke up because she was so sweaty … and she just looked at me, and there I knew, I knew that the leukemia is back," Kathrin said. 

Treatment started again.

"You always know this can happen. You always fear that this could be us again, but you still don't think it's gonna hit you," Kathrin said.

The side effects were severe.

"She couldn't talk anymore, she couldn't walk, she couldn't move," Kathrin said.

"Well, I could talk, but it sounded silly," Emilia said. 

Emilia's treatments didn't clear all of the cancer, so she had CAR-T cell therapy.

"I remember the exact moment when I got the T-cells out of my body," Emilia said.

So far, the treatment has worked: Emilia is in remission.

They say they couldn't have gotten here without community support, especially from the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

"And as soon as another family has a child with cancer, I tell them, go to Alex's. They will know how they can help you," Kathrin said.

Right now, the Isaacs family is focusing on life and celebrating with the viral T-cell dance.

Join CBS Philadelphia for the 20th annual Alex Scott A Stand for Hope Telethon, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Funds are being raised for childhood cancer research. To donate, visit here.