Ky. boy receives more than 13 thousand birthday cards

CAMPTON, Ky. (WKYT) - In March, we introduced you to Levi McKee. He was diagnosed with brain cancer last year after doctors found a large mass on the back of his brain and around his brain stem.

“Two days later, he was taken away for his eight hour surgery, and it lasted about 10.5. Amazingly, he was up on his feet three days after that, working with therapy, doing everything he could do to get strong again,” said Levi’s mother, Danielle McKee.

“He’s done amazing though as far as getting through it,” said Levi’s father, Kevin McKee.

“He has approached everything with joy. The people in the radiation department loved to see him coming because he would wear different costumes every day. One day, Spiderman would show up and one day it would be something scary like The Rake,” said Danielle McKee.

Those costumes came in handy during his prank war with the nurses.

“They got him and he got them, it was amazing,” said Kevin McKee. “Yeah, one, I had the rake costume on and tapped on the window and she look there and she freaked to death,” said Levi McKee.

He’s spent a lot of time in the hospital receiving treatment, hanging out with his favorite canine counselors and he even lost his first tooth there. Last time we saw Levi, he was getting ready to celebrate his seventh birthday at Kentucky Children’s Hospital on March 31. His parents asked for your help making his birthday special.

“One of his favorite things in the world is getting mail, checking the mailbox, those kids of things, so we wanted to ask anybody that will to try and pickup a card and put it in the mail for him for his birthday,” said Danielle McKee.

After the story aired, cards came in the mail daily. Levi’s parents collected the cards, waiting to surprise Levi on his birthday.

“The first day it was three cards and we thought, ‘okay we might reach our goal of 100. Then, the next day it was 630 and then 800 and it got into the thousands,” said Kevin McKee.

13,064 cards and counting. Almost a month later and cards are still coming in the mail.

“We’ve received cards and support from all over the world, all over the state, every single nook and cranny of Kentucky has showed up to send Levi a card,” said Danielle McKee. “Places I never knew existed. All over the world. Yesterday Australia sent him one. We’ve got them from Germany, London England; Bangkok, Thailand; Amsterdam, Netherlands,” said Kevin McKee.

“I thank you for giving me cards. It made my birthday special,” said Levi McKee.

Levi has received hundreds of packages in the mail too.

“Lots of toys. Anything that you could imagine a kid would want, they got it for him,” said Kevin McKee.

He received so many toys that he was able to share them with his friends at the DanceBlue Kentucky Children’s Hospital Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic.

After his birthday, another surprise was waiting at home for Levi.

“Our local first responders they’ve really showed up in style. Our Wolfe County team the day that he got home from the hospital, showed up to the house, with lights and sirens,” said Danielle McKee.

WKYT has received a lot of calls and messages asking how Levi is doing. Levi has just completed his sixth round of chemotherapy and he says he’s feeling much better.

“We’ve got a couple more to go but he’s doing really well on a very hard path,” said Danielle McKee.

If you’d like to support the DanceBlue Kentucky Children’s Hospital Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic you can donate here.

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