Aid for Aidan Fights His Cancer With Monsters

Nov. 11, 2010— -- Aidan Reed is fighting a monstrous disease. But he's getting a lot of help.

The Kansas boy, 5, has acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and to keep his mind off his illness, he draws monsters and sells his unique art to offset the costs of his treatment.

It was actually his aunt's idea to set up Aid for Aidan, where more than 4,000 of his colorful drawings have been sold online in the past two weeks.

At $12 a piece, the zany monsters have raised $50,000 for the family's medical expenses.

"It's overwhelming and unbelievable," dad Wiley Reed of Clearwater, Kan., said. "We had some unpleasant things happen this year that jaded us a bit about human nature, but this has totally turned that on its ear."

Aidan has been obsessed with monsters since he first visited a costume store at the age of 2.

"When my wife took him to Halloween Express, he didn't want to leave," Reed, 31, said. "It was kind of weird, but he was mesmerized."

Aidan draws his own creatures and dresses up as fictional characters such as Michael Myers of the cult film "Halloween," even though he has never even seen a horror flick.

Click here to look at or purchase Aidan's drawings.

"He's a real goofball and jokester and he never breaks out of character until he takes the mask off," his father said. "So it's his little hobby."

Aidan likes wolves and zombies and "scary clowns and aliens, but nothing prepared him or his family for the cancer diagnosis that came Sept. 13.

He had developed a cough and couldn't kick it, despite two rounds of antibiotics. Then his mother Katie Reed, 27, noticed unusual bruises that lingered.

Alarmed, she took him to the hospital where a nurse drew blood and turned to her and said, "I am not legally able to give a diagnosis, but this looks an awful lot like leukemia."

That same day, on the way to get a bone marrow test, Katie and Wiley Reed were convinced their son was going to die.