Young Liam loved Orange
and liked to wear ties.
To his firehouse friends
He was one of the guys.
He had his own locker
a slicker and hat.
He also had cancer,
and a bad one at that.
From early on in his life
he fought neuroblastoma ;
An invasive tumor
a metastatic carcinoma.
His family who loved him
labored to save
their dear little child
Prince Liam the Brave.
He faced surgery bravely,
engaged in his fight..
He endured radiation
Chemo and knife.
When many a New Yorker
complains about stress,
Prince Liam was stoic
When put to the test.
Then just before Christmas
he suffered a relapse
He became neutrapenic-
His immune system collapsed.
With blood in his *****
And a spot on his lung
Liam grew weak.
his defenses undone.
An Amethyst stone
he received from a friend
was his talisman of hope
that he held to the end.
The worst part of the journey
was when hope was gone.
Then Liam lay, still and silent
in his mother's arms.
There are brave fire fighters
Who’ll be fighting back tears
Brave Prince Liam has died,
He lived only six years
There are many old people
still avoiding the grave
Who know less about love
Than did Liam the brave
We will gather together
In St Francis’ nave
To remember the life of
Prince Liam the brave
i
When Liam Witt was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer at 33 months of age, his parents began calling him Prince Liam the Brave.
After they moved Liam and his little sister Ella from New Jersey to New York to be closer to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, firefighters down the block saw a kindred spirit.
The men of Ladder Co. 24 and Engine Co. 1 made Liam an official firefighter and even gave him an equipped locker inside their firehouse on W. 31st St.
As Liam underwent surgeries and was treated with chemotherapy and radiation for four years, his irrepressible spirit inspired friends to help his parents, Gretchen and Larry, start the foundation Cookies for Kids' Cancer.
It has raised an astonishing $2.5 million for pediatric cancer research, mostly from small bake sales and the charity's online cookie orders.
"He never became 'that sick kid,'" said Fraya Berg, a family friend. "He never lost himself in the disease. He was just a kid who was sick."
