When mother of two Alicia Fivecoat felt something the size of a golf ball stack He said he was devastated when he found out a few weeks later that he had it under his arm late last year. breast cancer.

In January, Fivecoat, now 62, was getting blood work at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston when he received news that would turn his battle with cancer upside down.

At Texas Children’s Hospital, across from MD Anderson, Fivecoat’s granddaughter Whitney, then almost 1 year old, was diagnosed. leukemia.

“It was such a surreal thing,” Fivecoat said.Good Morning America,” she said, adding that Whitney’s grandmother was at MD Anderson when they dropped everything to cross the street. “We were literally running from MD Anderson to Texas Children’s, trying to get there.”

At Texas Children’s Hospital, Fivecoat’s daughter, Shelly McAfee, and her husband, Tyler McAfee, were given the news that their seemingly healthy baby was battling acute myeloid leukemia, or AML (cancer of the bone marrow and blood). accordingly National Cancer Institute.

“Our hearts dropped to the floor,” Shelly McAfee said when she heard the diagnosis. “My husband and I melted.”

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The McAfees said they noticed some swelling and bruising around Whitney’s eye, which then spread to her other eye, prompting them to seek medical care.

The couple’s life quickly turned upside down when their daughter was diagnosed with AML. Whitney immediately began chemotherapy, which required the McAfees, who are also parents to a 4-year-old son, to spend more than 40 days at Texas Children’s Hospital, a two-hour drive from their home in Port Lavaca, Texas.

Around the same time, across the street from the hospital at MD Anderson, Fivecoat began chemotherapy for breast cancer.

“My mom’s chemotherapy schedule fell on a Friday, so there were times when my mother-in-law would bring her to treatment and they would actually stay with Whitney, and both my husband and I would be home with our son.” Shelly McAfee said: “For him, being there was a good time to hang out with Whitney, but it was also a good time to relax, and in case he wasn’t feeling well or had to go back to MD Anderson, he was right there.” “

Over the next few months, the grandmother and her grandson would experience the unfortunate side effects of chemotherapy, such as hair loss, together.

“It reminds you how fragile life is and that it doesn’t matter how old you are or what stage you’re in in your life, you never know what the next stage will bring,” Tyler McAfee said as he watched both he and his daughter. Her mother-in-law is fighting cancer.

When Fivecoat needed strength or reassurance that everything would be okay, he said he found it in Whitney; This includes times when they both had to undergo the same aggressive course of chemotherapy.

“When you found out that your grandson, who wasn’t even a year old at the time, had already had this treatment, it made me think, ‘You know what, I can do this,'” Fivecoat said. “There were a few different situations where I was afraid of what was going to happen to me, and Shelly was like, ‘Mom, Whitney’s already done this.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I can do that too, you know.’ I said.”

Fivecoat was with her grandson in June when Whitney saved his life bone marrow transplant Thanks to an anonymous stranger who signed up being a donor and it was found to be one perfect fit.

Just two months later, in August, Whitney and her family supported Fivecoat during her double mastectomy surgery as part of her breast cancer treatment.

“I’m really not sure how we’re going to get through the last six months without each other,” Fivecoat said of her family, including her son-in-law’s family and her young daughter.

Shelly McAfee added of the support they provide each other: “When they say it takes a village, you don’t realize it takes a village until you’re faced with an unforeseen situation like this.”

Whitney’s doctor, Dr. Erin DohertyThe pediatric oncologist at Texas Children’s Hospital said he has never seen a grandmother and her grandson undergo chemotherapy at the same time before in his career. Even though Whitney and Fivecoat’s cancers had nothing to do with each other, he said he saw firsthand the support they provided each other.

“Having family support is really important,” Doherty told “GMA.” “Whitney would perk up whenever she saw her grandmother and grandfather and all the family members who visited her, so it definitely helped her forget about what was going on while she was in the hospital.”

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Now, almost a year after dual diagnoses, both Whitney and Fivecoat are making progress.

Fivecoat said she has about eight more chemotherapy treatments left, followed by breast reconstructive surgery.

Whitney, now 19 months old, responded well to her transplant and while she continues to be monitored, Doherty said she should live a “long and healthy life.”

The McAfees describe Whitney as “wonderful”; They also use the word to describe friends, strangers, and especially family who helped them last year.

“Naturally, we want to handle things ourselves and not be dependent on others, but to go through this and have to depend on others is very, very humbling,” Tyler McAfee said. “But it also gives you a whole new level of appreciation and love for other people.”

Grandmother and her 1-year-old grandson fight cancer together originally appeared goodmorningamerica.com