SOUTHERN OCEAN COUNTY – It started with a candy cane.
A small gesture. A shy smile. A moment of unexpected kindness between two boys whose paths might never have crossed – if not for the one thing no children should ever have in common.
Giovanni “Gio” Trotter and Chase Huntington are both fighting for their lives. But in the unlikeliest of places – amid the sterile corridors of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) – they found something just as powerful as medicine: each other.
Gio is 9. Chase is 10. They live about 15 minutes apart in neighboring towns. One quiet, the other bursting with energy. Gio keeps close to his mom and is hesitant around new faces. Chase, the kind of kid who hands out candy canes to strangers at Christmas, has never met a room he couldn’t brighten.
And yet, something between them clicked. A friendship formed not on a playground, but in a pediatric cancer ward – one forged through IV poles and radiation machines, laughter and tears, silence and strength.
Gio’s Story
For Gio’s mother, Tiffanie, everything changed on December 12, 2024. Her oldest son, Gio, complained of pain in his right side. At first, she thought it was something simple – maybe gas or a muscle strain. She gave him a heating pad and ibuprofen and had him sleep beside her.
By 3 a.m., Gio was crying and begging to go to the hospital.
“I thought maybe his appendix,” Tiffanie recalled. “But nothing prepared me for what came next.”
A CT scan revealed something far worse: A massive tumor in his pelvis and nodules in his lungs. The words “likely metastatic” flashed across her MyChart app before a doctor could explain.
“I dropped to the floor screaming,” said Tiffanie. “All I could say was, ‘My baby, my baby, my baby.’”
Gio was rushed to CHOP. More tests. More scans. A biopsy. A full-body PET scan. Then the diagnosis: Stage 4 Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer.
A tumor nearly seven inches long had wrapped itself around Gio’s pelvis, pressing on his rectum and causing excruciating pain. Tiny tumors filled his lungs. His chemotherapy regimen would be brutal – alternating two-day and five-day hospital stays every two weeks for at least nine months.
Gio, who was in the third grade at Stafford’s McKinley School, hasn’t been back since the family got the news. School, Tiffanie said, is on hold for now. There are more pressing lessons about courage, resilience, and faith.
He wants to play football again. To hang out with his friends. To not feel so tired. When his hair started falling out, he asked to dye it “Eagles green.” Tiffanie scrambled to find someone to help make it happen before his next chemo session.
Chase’s Story
Just six days before Gio arrived at CHOP, another boy was beginning his own startling journey.
Chase was in Maine with his parents for the Thanksgiving holiday when he began experiencing intense pain.
“I couldn’t sit down, and I couldn’t sleep,” Chase said. “It just kept getting worse.”
Chase had been experiencing some stomach pains before the trip to Maine. Doctors initially suspected constipation, but the hospital visit revealed the unthinkable. Ultimately, Chase was diagnosed with Stage 4 rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive soft tissue cancer.
His maternal grandparents, Susan and Charles Dasti, are Chase’s caregivers. Their home in New Gretna – with a Tuckerton mailing address – is not all that far from CHOP, offering access to world-class treatment resources. Chase has become a regular on CHOP’s third floor oncology unit.
He’s undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, with terrifying side effects, including liver and kidney damage. Things were so bad at one point that Chase spent multiple days in an induced coma.
Somehow, none of it seems to have dampened Chase’s vibrant spirit. Susan says that Chase has an uncanny way of making friends. She smiled as she recalled him on a scooter on the hospital floor with Rachel, another New Jersey kid going through her own fight.
And, Tiffanie’s the first to admit that Chase helps brighten her son’s day.
“Chase always finds him,” said Tiffanie. “No matter what room we’re in, he’s looking for Gio.”
The timing seems somewhat uncanny – earlier this week Chase and Gio ran into one another – at CHOP – the place that’s become their second home.
A Bridge Between Two Boys
The first time the boys met, it was Christmas Eve on the bridge that connects CHOP’s buildings. Chase, armed with a bag of candy canes, stopped Gio with a simple question: “Want one?”
Gio hesitated – he’s shy by nature – but took the candy cane anyway. Chase smiled and said, “Merry Christmas.”
That moment sparked something powerful. Since then, every time they see each other, they light up. The hallway becomes a reunion, not a hospital corridor.
Chase, the outgoing one, pulls Gio out of his shell. Gio is more of a quiet fighter.
“They’re a year and a week apart in age,” said Tiffanie. “But it’s like they’ve known each other forever.”
Both families have found unexpected support through the Ashley Lauren Foundation, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that offers financial, emotional, and material support for families facing pediatric cancer.
Laura Scalese, whose daughter Charlotte Joy died from neuroblastoma in 2023, now serves as the Foundation’s Resource Director. She reached out to both families personally.
For the Trotters, transportation was a major hurdle – until LFG Auto in Brick donated a 2021 Dodge Durango to help get Gio back and forth to CHOP.
Chase’s grandparents were hesitant about accepting help at first. The Ashley Lauren Foundation asked for contributions to supplement meal costs for the family when Chase was confined to the hospital. Numerous others have also provided assistance – including families from the Frog Pond Elementary School in Little Egg Harbor, where Chase last attended fourth grade.
“I struggled with it,” Susan admitted. “But his principal said, ‘Thank you for letting us be a part of this journey.’ That really shifted my perspective.”
Like many children facing life-threatening illnesses, both boys are registered with the Make-A-Wish program.
Gio has his heart set on Disney World – a magical escape where he can feel like a regular kid again.
Chase has a different vision: “I want to go to the Florida Keys,” he said. “A house big enough for ten people, so my whole family can come. With a boat and a pool.”
Big dreams for two little boys carrying more weight than most adults ever will.
When asked what he would say to other children facing cancer, Chase didn’t hesitate. “Never give up,” he said.
