Mooresville cousins fight cancer together with help of family, community

MOORESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) – To understand why the laughter filling the Strietelmeier’s living room is so sweet, and why the smile on Kylie Strietelmeier’s face is so infections, you have to know what the family sitting in the living room has been through.

“I was diagnosed of August 1st of this year. It’s actually my birthday. I didn’t get told until the day after so it’s all good,” said Kylie Strietelmeier.

She learned that she has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

“It was rough, but…,” she said.

But that smile of hers, it’s been on her face in the hospital. As beautiful as the crown on her head she wore as homecoming princess.

Throughout the process, she says she’s  received help from those around her.

“My friends and family and really the whole town of Mooresville,” she said.

She mentions that her older cousin, Brandon, has been especially helpful.

“I hated it. I kept telling myself she’s too young for something like that and she didn’t need to go through it,” he said.

Brandon got the call that Kylie had cancer not long after he was married while on his honeymoon. When he returned home, he too started to feel sick.

“I woke up that morning with a bad pain in my stomach. could hardly even stand up,” he said.

Five days later, doctors gave him the news.

“August 15th is when I found out I had cancer,” Brandon said.

That came just two weeks after Kylie learned she had cancer.

“It was kind of crazy, so it made me feel like he’s going to go through it with me,” Kylie said.

And Brandon has been there. He shaved off her hair, she shaved off his. While She’s been at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, he’s been at Simon Cancer Center.

They are cousins crushing cancer as they like to say with the help of their family and community.

“A lot of fundraisers for us, they’ll put up signs. People you don’t know will come up to you,” said Kylie.

“It makes me smile.”

To give back to the community they say has been so good to them and to help other patients, a blood drive will be held in Brandon and Kylie’s honor in Mooresville Wednesday.

The blood drive will be held in the library at Paul Hadley Middle School in Mooresville located at 200 West Carlisle Street from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

To register, click here.