Local Couple Raises Awareness Of Childhood Cancer With Truck Honoring 12-Year-Old

A Green Country couple is traveling to car shows in a truck they made to spread awareness about childhood cancer. The Braxton Truck honors the journey of 12-year-old Braxton Landburg who died in February.

Time can be a fickle thing. We all expect to have a lot of it and we feel robbed when it goes by too quickly. The quality of our lives can't always be measured by the time we are here on earth, but by how we fill each day we are here.

“He gave us more than we ever thought we could give him," said Braxton’s dad Jared Landburg.

12-year-old Braxton is the perfect example of a life lived with fullness.

"He was always concerned about those around him and about us and about his sister and how we were going to be, knowing there was going to come a time that he wasn't going to be here with us," said Jared.

Braxton was diagnosed with DIPG, a cancer that grows on the brain stem. Doctors told his parents Jared and Shelby the unthinkable, they might only have months left with their son.

"The Lord was very gracious to our family and gave us 9 more months with Braxton. Some people don't get that," said Braxton’s mom Shelby Landburg.

Those 9 months were full. While Braxton was fighting his cancer, Jake Powell a close friend of the family decided to have a burn out car show to raise money for Braxton's medical bills.

"You are constantly thinking, ‘What if that was me? What if that was my kid? What would I want done? This is just something we knew that we could do," said Jake.

"We thought, well we need to go buy a truck and we need to try to throw something together for it," said The Braxton Truck creator Joey Woodall.

Joey and his fiancé created The Braxton Truck to spread awareness about childhood cancers like the one Braxton was so courageously fighting.

"The truck is always changing there is nothing that stays the same on it," said Joey, "We try to do all the burnouts we can and then while we are doing it we let people know what they are signing it for"

Braxton passed away in February, but Joey still takes the truck to every car show he can, to tell people Braxton's story.

'It is just a piece of him that we are never going to lose. It is always going to be there," said Jared.

Other parents have now asked Joey to add ribbons to Braxton’s Truck to honor their child’s battle with cancer and some of those ribbons have wings on them now. This truck is carrying the legacy of heroes- whose lives were lived with fullness, that you can feel, even now.

“Nobody will ever forget him,” Joey said. “I am trying to make sure nobody ever forgets any of these other kids.”

You can find The Braxton Truck on Facebook here and more information about the disease at this website here.