Sterling Heights police help family whose young son is battling brain tumor

FOX 2 - A heartwarming story that all begins with police pulling over a family in a hotel parking lot.

The backstory:

Sterling Heights police learned the family was in town for their son’s cancer treatments — the same type of cancer the responding officer had survived himself.

It all started on Feb. 3, when police noticed a family in the parking lot of a hotel.

Officer bodycam: "You said you have to go for what?"

The boy's mom: "Go to Royal Oak for radiation. He gets proton therapy."

Officer: "He does?"

Mom: "Yeah, he has cancer."

This little guy is 4-year-old Zayden.

"He’s had a brain tumor here and this was two years ago," said his dad, Jaron Brown. "His most recent MRI in July, revealed it had metastasized down to his spine."

Hearing that really hit home for the responding Officer Jacob Lopez.

"The officer that was driving peeked his head out and said 'Did I hear you say radiation?' It turns out he had the same treating physician for the same exact condition in the same exact location," Brown said.

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel," Lopez said to Brown. "I’m obviously walking. I was in the same boat he was, I didn’t know if I would walk or not. It is a tough process and I can’t imagine how hard it is for you guys."

It turns out this family is all the way from Iron Mountain, way up in the Upper Peninsula. 

They can’t go to any Wisconsin hospitals with their insurance and had to travel nine hours to SE Michigan. That takes a lot of resources, and they’ve been living in the hotel since December.

"You’ve been here through the holidays, you’ve been away from family, and you're Door Dashing through the night to make ends meet," said Officer Brendan Harrison, Sterling Heights police. "We’re all husbands, we’re all fathers. This is a parent's worst nightmare. There’s something we have to do."

The Sterling Heights police officers all pitched in to buy a few hundred dollars worth of gift cards — and raised over $8,000 dollars from the community for Zayden.

"That’ll help you guys out," Lopez said. "Anything from us to make a difference."

"Wow," Brown said.

And as a little bonus, they got another gift.

"This is a goofy book I wrote for my kids. You can throw it in the trash," quipped Lopez. "I hope you guys like it."

"No - we'll cherish it," Brown said.

Brown and his family were touched by the unexpected help.

"It was just a God send. It’s been about three or four months since we’ve been away from home," Brown said. "And I’ve been on medical leave for about the entire time, and we were pretty close to being out of funds. So them showing up and contributing to us financially was a God send."

"I’m really proud of these guys and they’re out there every day doing this kind of work," said Chief Andy Satterfield.  

"As a father it hurt me seeing this and we wish we could save everyone," Harrison said. "We know we can’t, but we were put in this position. Thank God we were able to do something beneficial and impactful for this family."

They’ll be returning to Iron Mountain but will be back.

You can find Zayden’s GoFundMe by GOING HERE.