EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: A Family of Hope
TOPSAIL BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Raising a family is extraordinary in itself for a mother and father, but this week, our Extraordinary Person of the Week is actually an entire family. A family of 11 here in the Cape Fear…a family of hope.
The Thomas family enjoys the little things like everyone else. Dinner. Playing ball. Pets.
They also live a life very different than everyone else.
“For the longest time I didn’t understand the happening to our family,” Ginger Thomas told Daniel Seamans. “You only see it on TV.”
Ginger Thomas is mother to 9 children. Her family includes one fighting for our lives. And one fighting for her own.
Sophia Hope Thomas has a rare form of childhood leukemia and has spent much of her life in and out of a hospital. When she was 8 months old, a seizure would lead to the rare cancer diagnosis.
“They said she has a 10% chance to make it to her first birthday and that’s something I refused to believe,” Thomas said.
8 years later, with the cancer is remission and the family living a dream in the Cape Fear, another seizure would lead to another diagnosis. “They found out she has epilepsy,” Thomas said, “part of her brain didn’t develop correctly and she has scarring.”
But this Topsail Beach loving family is as strong as they come. “All of my children are super heroes because every sibling,” she said. “It affects all of us.”
Ginger home schools some of her children. She is also teaming up with non-profits in hopes of helping other families dealing with cancer through her experience.
“I want this to be part of something bigger, where, whenever other people are in a place I’ve been that I’ve walked, that I can walk with them and they are never alone,” Thomas said of her future as a motivational speaker for local non-profits.
The Thomas family lives a mountainous journey.
They are survivors.
And they are nothing short of extraordinary.
The Thomas family is a big one….
Brooklynn Elizabeth, 23.
Dalton Christopher, 21.
Kaylee Summer, 18.
Hannah Kimberly, 15.
Isabella Grace, 14.
Seth Michael Steven, 12.
Malia Faith, would be 9 (passed shortly after birth, organ donor)
Sophia Hope, 8, diagnosed at 8 months.
Kaleb Samuel, 6.
Adam and Ginger, parents.
