A total stranger drove from North Carolina to Utah to reunite dog and boy diagnosed with brain cancer.
A total stranger drove 2,300 miles to reunite a dog with his boy, who was recovering from emergency surgery to remove a tumor that was strangling his brain.
Little Perryn Miller, an 8-year-old on holiday vacation in Utah with his parents and little brother, had been suffering bad headaches, which his doctors in North Carolina said were caused by his new eyeglasses.
But when Perryn vomited during one especially bad migraine, his family rushed him to a Utah emergency room, where a scan showed a large tumor in his head. An ambulance took him to Primary Children's Hospital, where he underwent seven hours of surgery to remove the growth and was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme, the same aggressive brain cancer that claimed Arizona Sen. John McCain.
"It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure," Perryn's mom, Jaimee Lynn Miller, told InsideEdition.com Tuesday.
As news spread on social media about Perryn's troubles — his family had also lost much of their home to Hurricane Florence, an outpouring of emotion came the Miller family's way.
That included former truck driver Bob Reynolds, who offered to pick up the Miller's dog that had been left in North Carolina and drive the pup to Perryn's side. "We just went with it," said Perryn's mom.
True to his word, Reynolds picked up Frank, the family's 9-month-old German shepherd, and drove him to Utah in 52 hours. "It just makes Perryn happier," his mother said. "I think we all feel a little more comfortable that he's here."
And Perryn swears that when he cuddled up to Frank, a lone tear escaped the dog's eye. "He cried and I felt loved," the boy said.
Perryn is scheduled to begin chemotherapy and radiation to battle the cancer ravaging his young body. His parents don't focus on the "terminal" portion of his diagnosis. They are concentrating on the here and now, describing the drug and radiation therapies Perryn will soon begin, and telling him he is strong enough to shoulder these treatments.
"He is a warrior," his mother said. "I don't know if he fully understands how sick he is. He wants to go home and see his friends and go back to normal, but that's not on the table."
Though he is, after all, just a child, Perryn realizes that he is now in uncharted territory and he is going to have to endure some very adult procedures.
"He is amazing," said Miller. "He just does what he has to do.
"We asked the doctors to tell us the truth and not to sugarcoat it," she said. The parents don't sugarcoat things for Perryn, either. Though they do focus on the light, and not the darkness, of their new lives.
"We're always positive in telling him what's going on," she said. "We leave the conversations open-ended and we let Perryn ask questions.
"We're learning as we go."
A GoFundMe account has been established to help with Perryn's medical treatment.
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