About Us

Our History

In March 2008, Madyson Grace Darner was 8 ½ years old when she and her family received the terrible news that she had a tumor, an inoperable brain tumor.  She was diagnosed with a Stage 2 Astrocytoma which was located in both the right and left side of her thalamus and touching on into the mid-brain. Due to the location of the tumor and the organ it was infused with, her only treatment option was chemotherapy. 

Madyson was to undergo 18 months of chemotherapy treatments.  To complicate her condition, the tumor grew in such a way as to create a second condition called hydrocephalus or water on the brain.

To treat her for the hydrocephalus, her neurosurgeon installed a VPN shunt to help regulate the flow of CF fluid off her brain.  Madyson has undergone the original shunt surgery, plus three shunt revisions, all within the first seven months of her diagnosis. During this same time, she was  receiving scheduled chemotherapy treatments for her tumor.  

"As difficult a situation we found ourselves in as a family, says Maydson's mom, Connie, we found joy and peace through a terrible ordeal.  Lifting Hands was established to help our family through these dark and trying times.  It's friends and organizations like Lifting Hands that lets one know the goodness in their next door neighbor.  Lifting Hands was a blessing to our family!"