ST. LOUIS (KTVI) — Police and firefighters came together to throw a birthday parade for a six-year-old girl who has been isolated from her friends because of a severe medical condition.
Chief Jason Armstrong from the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department met the Mason family just a few days ago but organized a huge parade with police cars, fire trucks and others in the community to celebrate Paydenn Mason’s sixth birthday.
The parade was so special to Mason and her family because she was diagnosed with high-risk stage 4 Neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer in the kidneys.
Paydenn was diagnosed in July 2020 and has been through six rounds of chemo, a bone marrow transplant and just finished radiation therapy on Friday.
Because of her condition and medical treatments, her life – and the lives of her parents Cody and Samantha Mason – have been turned upside down.
Saturday, she was able to put the surgeries and treatments behind her and just enjoy being a six-year-old kid while the community came out to show their support.
“I was actually coming up Florissant Road and Chief Armstrong was directing traffic, and something in my head just told me to stop him and ask him about a parade and he made it happen,” Samantha Mason said.
“So it’s been a blessing to me to be able to work on and to help put this together so that she could have a memorable birthday,” Armstrong said. “Despite all the challenges that she’s been going through, just shower her with love, sometimes that’s the greatest gift that we can give somebody.”
Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones was present and was encouraged to see her community and its leaders care about Paydenn and her family enough to put together a parade.