STOW, MASS. (WHDH) - It was a big day in Stow for the town’s newest firefighter, who got a very special gift from the department.
Diagnosed when he was less than a year old with a rare auto-immune disorder, Brayden Ginthwain has spent much of his 4 years of life in and out of the hospital, completing multiple rounds of marrow transplants and a life-saving stem cell treatment.
“Since then it’s been a lot of frequent appointments, back-and-forth through the city, and he’s had a bunch of different stem cell infusions since then, so it’s been a lot,” said his dad, Erik Gunthwait. His mom, Angela Ginthwait, said her son is always putting on a brave face.
“When he got the diagnosis, it was just unimaginably hard, it was our first child. But him being so brave and so courageous and so kind and loving life has just made it way easier to cope with how difficult his disorder is,” she said.
But Friday, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Brayden was at the Stow Fire Department, getting the grand tour and even getting his very own uniform.
“He gets to be a kid,” said Capt. Barry Evers. “He gets to have fun. He gets to be him. He doesn’t have to worry about anything else.”
The department even set up a small fire for him to douse.
And that’s not all, Brayden and his family are setting off for a family trip to Disney World.
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