KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Very rarely do you see a bucket full of candy in a dentist’s office.
But very rarely is a 5-year-old diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, known as DIPG— a highly aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain cancer.
Too much candy around your house? Tonight a dentist is willing to buy it from you to help a metro girl. Details ahead on @41actionnews at 10 pic.twitter.com/BLDBdnza5d
— Ariel Rothfield KSHB (@arothfield) November 2, 2017
"When her story came out I just thought this is definitely something we need to do,” said Dr. Robin Hildebrand of Hildebrand Dental. “You always think if something like that ever happened to your family, how would people react?”
Which is why this Halloween, Hildebrand decided to have a “candy buy-back.”
For every piece of candy donated to her office, Hildebrand Dental will give 50 cents to Eowyn Maynes— the little girl fighting brain cancer.
Every couple of weeks the Smithville girl and her parents travel to Mexico so she can undergo an experimental treatment, they believe will give her more time than any other option.
The downside — the treatment is very expensive.
"So far all of her bills have been paid 100 percent from donations,” said Eowyn’s dad, KC. "These types of things [donation drives] do keep us grounded in that kind of reality. It would be easy to be overwhelmed by it but things like this help back from that cliff.”
Hildebrand has never met Eowyn or her family but the dentist hopes to raise more than $2,000 to help the family with medical expenses.
So far, on day one, her Smithville office has almost filled up an entire 5-quart bucket.
“It really warms my heart to see the community reach out and care so much about someone,” she said.
Hildebrand Dental will accept candy donations until Friday at both their Smithville and Plattsburg locations. Hildebrand would like to present the family with a check as early as next week and will send the collected candy to troops overseas.
As for Eowyn, she heads back to Mexico for her fourth “big treatment” on Monday. To help with her medical bills, you can click here.
