Saratoga Springs family with two young girls battling illness feels grateful

Mark Mulholland WNYT

Saratoga Springs family dealing with 2 sick kids

Ashley Bernath and her husband, Ryan, have been dealing with the serious illnesses of both of their daughters. First, their 3-month-old daughter Lucy had to be hospitalized for months because of respiratory distress and inability to keep food down. She has gastroparesis. Then, their 2-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia.

A young mother from Saratoga Springs is grateful for the support her family is receiving following her daughter’s leukemia diagnosis.

Ashley Bernath’s 2 ½-year-old daughter Charlie is bubbly and effervescent – always chatting with everyone, her parents, her little sister and even strangers in the grocery store.

But the chemotherapy has made it hard for Charlie to be Charlie. She’s being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Her mom tells NewsChannel 13’s Mark Mulholland that she has good days and bad days. She’s not walking like she was before the broken leg that led to her diagnosis.

But on the good days, she’s crawling and entertaining her little sister Lucy, who is also sick. Lucy was admitted to the hospital when she was just three months old, unable to keep food down. She was diagnosed with gastroparesis. It wasn’t long after Lucy came home with a feeding tube that Charlie was diagnosed with cancer.

“I was joking with my friends, said ‘you know, we planned for two under two. We didn’t plan for two under two with two feeding tubes.’

“We knew it was going to be busy, but we didn’t realize the extent of busyness we were going to have,” she said.

There is a big fundraiser Sunday for the Bernath family at King’s Tavern on Avenue. Called “Cheering for Charlie,” it will have live music, food, silent auction and live auction with retired race announcer Tom Durkin. The event takes place from noon to 5 p.m.

Ashley and her husband Ryan are not letting their daughters’ situation get them down.

“There’s been a number of times my husband and I have both said, ‘we’re so lucky,’ and it’s crazy and we’ll stop ourselves when we say it because our child was diagnosed with cancer. Yet, we feel lucky because we have this support system that has not only rallied around Charlie and Lucy, but has rallied around us in ways that I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to pay back,” she said.  

Ashley said that through it all, she feels fortunate.

“I can’t believe this is our reality and I’m sad that this is our reality, but there’s a lot of ways that we’re all going to be better for it. I see a resilience in both of our girls,” she said.