IHOP Honors 7-Year-Old Leukemia Survivor from Falls Church

After a three-and-a-half year bout with strenuous chemo treatments, Carson King’s leukemia is in remission.

Throughout his treatments, Carson – a 7-year-old student at Mount Daniel Elementary School in Falls Church – continued to eat pizza and pancakes. Monday, Carson and about 20 of his classmates were treated to a pancake breakfast at a Falls Church International House of Pancakes (IHOP) to kick off National Pancake Day on Tuesday.

“He is a hero,” Carson’s mother Jennifer King said. “He’s been through so much.”

Local IHOP customers will receive a free short stack of pancakes Tuesday with their meals between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and all proceeds from sales that day go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s National Capital Area Chapter.

Area IHOPs are trying to raise $220,000 for the chapter’s mission and the Falls Church store has a goal of $8,000 to raise. According to an LLS release, the organization is raising money in Carson’s honor. Carson was selected as the IHOP National Pancake Day Honored Hero.

With goodie bags with trinkets and T-shirts and balloons on every chair, Carson and his classmates ate pancakes and some even named their chocolate chips with Bob being the name of choice Monday morning. Carson chatted with friends, posed for pictures and, like any 7-year-old, he dug into his powdered sugar-covered pancake with a vengeance.

The popular first grader turned shy when talking to some of the unfamiliar people at his pancake party, but managed to let it be known what he likes about IHOP: Pancakes, bacon and eggs.

“He is a regular customer,” said Teri Liguori, general manager of the Falls Church IHOP. “His teacher came in and spoke with me about having him and wanted to have a party for him here and I said, ‘Heck yeah.'”

For the last three months, Carson has been off his treatments. He’s attending classes regularly, something he couldn’t do much when he was going through treatments because of the risk of getting sick from classmates and mom and big sister, Francesca, said he’s back to normal at home.

Francesca, 15, said it was shocking at first to see her little brother going through his battle with leukemia but she’s happy he’s better now. Carson has been strong throughout his battle, she said, and now it’s back to being “little brother.”

“He knows how to push my buttons,” she said.

Carson’s parents said the schools have been very helpful throughout the treatments, even allowing Francesca to stay home and complete her studies so she wouldn’t get him sick when a Swine Flu outbreak occurred. King said she hopes to continue working with LLS and watching Carson improve and get back to a normal life has been fabulous.

“He’s getting stronger everyday,” she said.

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