The family of a little girl who died trying to get treatment is making a new push to raise awareness for childhood cancers.
Ten-year-old Aaliyah Mitchell died on a plane as she was returning home from a last effort to get help for her cancer.
Aaliyah's mom, Heather Williams, is encouraging people to wear gold pins or bracelets to fight for childhood cancer awareness, though she lost her daughter in the battle with cancer.
“I lit this this morning. We light one every day,” Williams said. “There’s not a day that day goes by that I don't think about her.”
In February Action News Jax showed video of one of the 10-year-olds last conversations with her mother.
“I watch that video probably three times a week still,” Williams said.
But in January after a trip to cancer doctors in Texas, Aaliyah didn’t survive the flight back home. She died in her mother's arms.
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“I just relive it daily I go to bed at night and I just wish there was something I could've done differently I just wish I could've saved her,” Williams said.
But now Williams is using that pain to help save the other thousands of children diagnosed with cancer.
The American Cancer Society said more than 10,000 people will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year.
“The more people we can make aware the more we can have share that childhood cancer exists,” Williams said. “This is her first birthday in heaven.”
Williams said one thing she said Aaliyah would have wanted for her 11th birthday is to save another child's life.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month.
The benefit will be held at Montclair Elementary School and everyone is encouraged to attend.
The benefit dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The school is asking for people to RSVP. They are also accepting toys and board games for children with cancer at Wolfson's Hospital and Monetary donations for Aaliyah's Hope Foundation.
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