Rally Kid Alli
Alli was just 7 years old when her family’s world changed forever.
What started as a normal Labor Day weekend in September 2021 quickly became every parent’s nightmare. After running a fever and complaining of pain in her arm, Alli’s symptoms rapidly worsened. Soon, she could no longer walk because of the pain. Her parents rushed her from one doctor’s office to another, still believing it was likely a virus or minor illness.
Within hours, everything changed.
Doctors discovered Alli’s body was dangerously low on white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. She was transferred by ambulance to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where her family heard the words no parent should ever hear: cancer.
Just days later, the diagnosis became even more devastating. Alli was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a blood cancer, along with a rare mutation that placed her in the high-risk category. At the same time, she was also fighting a MRSA infection in her bloodstream.
For weeks, Alli could not walk on her own. She spent an entire month in the hospital before finally being able to return home. Instead of attending second grade with her friends, she completed school remotely while enduring treatment.
Since then, Alli has been through more than any child ever should.
She has endured countless procedures, scans, hospital stays and rounds of chemotherapy. Twice, her family was told treatment should put her into remission. Twice, it did not.
It was not until Alli received an immunotherapy drug through childhood cancer research that her family finally heard the words “no leukemia cells detected.” Without research-funded treatments like the one that helped Alli, her family was told she likely would have needed a bone marrow transplant.
In the middle of their daughter’s fight, Alli’s family decided they wanted to help other children facing childhood cancer too.
That is how Alli’s Rally began.
What started as a community fundraiser has grown into an event that brings people together to support childhood cancer research and raise awareness for kids like Alli. Over the past several years, Alli’s Rally has raised more than $2,000for Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research.
“This event means the world to us because in the midst of her own battle, Alli saw the other children sharing her hospital floor and wanted to do something to help,” her mother shared. “There are so many children still fighting, and the fear of relapse is so terrifyingly real.”
That fear became reality in December 2025.
After beating cancer once, Alli relapsed and began treatment again at just 11 years old.
Today, Rally Kid Alli is once again fighting ALL, surrounded by the love and support of her family, friends and Rally community. Her story is a heartbreaking reminder that childhood cancer does not always end after the first battle.
Kids like Alli urgently need more effective treatments, fewer long-term side effects and ultimately cures.
Right now, too many children still face toxic treatments, devastating relapses and lifelong health complications caused by the very therapies meant to save them. Childhood cancer research remains critically underfunded, despite 47 children being diagnosed with cancer every single day in the United States.
Research changes outcomes.
Research gave Alli another option when chemotherapy failed. Research is what gives families hope when they are told there are no easy answers left.
But there is still so much more work to do.
This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, join Alli’s family and so many others fighting alongside these children by starting your own 47 Faces fundraiser.
Whether you host an event, sell T-shirts, start an online fundraiser or rally your community together, every fundraiser helps support groundbreaking childhood cancer research for kids like Alli.
Start your 47 Faces fundraiser today in honor of the 47 children diagnosed with cancer every day and help fund better treatments, fewer long-term side effects and ultimately cures.