Mom Shocked as Son, 2, Is Diagnosed with Rare Cancer. 4 Months Later, His Identical Twin Receives Life-Altering News

When Alisha Openshaw’s son, Weston, was about two years old, he began falling sick constantly.

It was a relentless cycle of infection, recovery, and then another infection. Alisha sensed that a diagnosis was looming.

“Obviously, your mind never goes to cancer. It’s a fleeting moment of, ‘Could this be cancer? No, that’s so unrealistic.’ And then you shift your mindset,” Openshaw tells PEOPLE.

In April 2022, the Openshaws received a diagnosis that would change their lives: Weston, then one, had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

“I really knew nothing about leukemia,” Alisha recalls. “I knew it was a cancer, but I didn’t know what treatment looked like or what the prognosis was, so it was just terrifying to hear that your kid has cancer.”

After transferring to the local children’s hospital in Vancouver and meeting with an oncologist, Alisha asked directly about the risk for his identical twin brother, Bennett. She was told 20%.

“But at the time, I didn’t really have the mental or emotional capacity to even entertain that idea that possibly they could both get this diagnosis,” she remembers.

Weston began chemotherapy the same day. After several months, he was able to continue treatment at home while visiting the hospital periodically. Once Weston was home, Alisha allowed herself to consider the possibility that Bennett could also be diagnosed.

Nearly four months later, that fear became reality.

Because Weston was being treated, the oncologist at B.C. Children’s Hospital monitored Bennett as well. His early bloodwork came back normal, but gradually, abnormalities appeared.

“Then, just shy of four months later, we were taking Weston in for a scheduled admission… and they said to bring Bennett in as well,” Alisha recalls. She had a sense that something bad was coming. “A little piece of me was like, ‘Just pack so that you’re ready if the ball drops.’”

Her world came to a standstill. After four months in the oncology world, the family’s life became centered entirely on getting their two sons through treatment.

The oncology team was shocked by the rare occurrence of twins being diagnosed and treated simultaneously. Alisha and her husband also have an older child, but aside from the twins’ identical status, the risk wasn’t higher for him.

“It’s not like adult cancers that have environmental or lifestyle factors,” she explains. “Childhood cancers are just luck of the draw.”

The boys underwent three years of treatment, navigating a world Alisha had never known.

“I was just dropped into this world that I knew nothing about,” she says, even with her experience as a paramedic. “I have a little more base knowledge than your average parent.”

Because Weston and Bennett were so young, their reactions to treatment were unique.

“They didn’t really know any better,” she says. “To them, they thought that every other two-year-old goes to the hospital every day and gets chemo, has to relearn to walk, and deal with feeding tubes, because they saw each other doing it.”

There were moments when the twins resisted medications and longed for normal playtime. Some treatments were so painful that Alisha struggles to reflect on them even now.

Alisha found solace and community in her new environment.

“You create some pretty special bonds with people when you’re going through such a nightmare together,” she says. “I really leaned on the other moms and the other families.”

She also shared their journey on social media through Twincredibles Fam, a TikTok account she started “from a dark hospital room,” which now has over 41,000 followers.

“Social media has been a way for me to heal because it’s been my creative outlet,” she says. “I was just in this small hospital room for weeks and months at a time, and it was a way to process my feelings.”

Balancing the twins’ care with their older sibling’s needs added another layer of stress.

“The mental load of trying to keep his life normal and make sure he still felt included and loved… it was overwhelming,” she says.

Alisha stopped working to focus on her children, while her self-employed husband supported the family financially.

“I feel like I was just their nurse, I couldn’t be their mom,” she says. “Kids are dying from cancer literally every single day, and you don’t think about it when you’re not in that world because it’s too painful.”

After three years of treatment filled with challenges, both boys were declared in remission in fall 2024.

Alisha recalls the grueling journey, especially Weston’s complications, which included cancer in his spinal fluid and multiple setbacks. He had to relearn to walk four times, while Bennett never stopped walking. After treatment, they began kindergarten, having missed preschool entirely.

“Now they’re six, and it’s interesting because when I pull up videos or pictures of when they were sick, they don’t remember a lot of it,” Alisha says. “Which is a trip for me. I don’t forget a single second, and they’ve moved on. Now that they’re healthy and in remission, I’m unraveling and processing all the trauma and grief we’ve been through.”

The anxiety hasn’t completely faded. The first year in remission is the riskiest for relapse, but chances decrease with time. In five years, barring relapse, the boys will be considered cancer-free.

“This is their life, and it’s just normal to them, but sometimes I wish I could say, ‘You guys, you have no idea what you’ve just gone through. This is so incredible,’” Alisha says.

Gradually, she’s allowing herself to envision the future.

“For so long during their treatment, I couldn’t think about the future because I was so scared they wouldn’t have one,” she says. “I’m starting to picture what our future will look like. I want us all to live long, healthy, happy lives. But it’s scary too. Anyone who’s been through something traumatic always worries about the rug being pulled out from underneath them again.”

Still, Alisha feels the family has grown through the experience.

“There was this one quote that kept popping up in my mind throughout their treatment,” she explains. “The saying, ‘Grow from it.’ I kept telling myself, ‘You have to grow from this. You have to grow from this. So we’re going to get through it and grow from it.’”