Four women, one from Utah, start health literacy project for kids [Video]

When Reina Beach’s son, Elliott, then 8, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she said that what happened after that felt like a blur.

“It all was very quick and overwhelming,” Beach said. “It just was like — boom — all at once.”

Doctors found Burkitt lymphoma, a type of cancer that primarily affects children and young adults, in Elliott’s tonsil. He was given a scan that night, and scheduled for surgery. A week later, he started chemotherapy.

Then, they conducted a biopsy of Elliott’s bone marrow, and gave him a dose of intrathecal chemo, which is administered through the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord, with a needle to the spin.

During that first round of chemo, doctors would come in and discuss the side effects. Elliott — “a very anxious and sensitive kid by nature,” Reina Beach said — stayed silent. She said she asked Elliott if he …