Christmas comes early for local family with 4-year-old battling leukemia
Santa ditched his reindeer and hit the streets of Indio in style to deliver a truckload of holiday cheer to a very deserving family.
Christmas came early for the Lopez family and their 6 children, and its all thanks to the Debbie Chisholm Memorial Foundation, Southern California law enforcement’s only wish-granting charity.
“We have our spirit of Christmas program and each year we select families that have a sick child and deliver Christmas to them, along with Santa, the fire, and the police department and we want them to know that the fire and police are the good guys,” said Corky Belle, an executive director of the foundation.
Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital helps select the families, focusing on the children who have a life-threatening illness.
The Lopez family has 6 children ranging in age from 4 to 18. Two of their children have serious illnesses. Their other child we’ve covered before, four-year Isaiah Lopez who continues to battle leukemia.
Read: 4-year-old battles with leukemia; Family needs $15,000 to keep Indio home from foreclosure
“I felt very happy, felt blessed to see that, especially since we’ve had a lot of rough times the past couple of years,” said Maria Lopez, the mother of the children. “It’s big for us. I’m very grateful and thankful to everyone and Corky and blessing us with all this.”
Isaiah has about a year left on his treatments. His mom said he is in good spirits and was really excited to see Santa and his early Christmas surprise.
