'You can never prepare yourself for anything like this'

Haley was having headaches for a couple months but we attributed it to stress of graduating, choosing a college and the major life changes she would be facing.

Fourth of July weekend 2013 we were having lunch and I noticed her eye was deviated inward. We made an eye doctor appointment for Monday afternoon. On the way to the eye doctor, her arm and mouth were going numb and she was losing her cognitive skills. I immediately took her to the emergency room. Two hours later, I was told she had a massive brain tumor.

Any illness is hard on a family. It's heart-wrenching when your only child asks you if she is going to die. You know the answer, but you make a promise to her that you will not let it happen, that you will do everything in your super mom power to get her to college, to let her fall in love and get married, to be so excited that one day you will be a grandma ... to lie to your child.

But as a parent you face every day with them, every challenge they endure - from doctor appointments, radiation, chemo treatments, blood transfusions to hospital stays sometimes over three weeks long. You face those with a smile on your face and a positive attitude because that is what your child needs.

You can never prepare yourself for anything like this in life. Friends, family and strangers came together to help myself and Haley - from making us dinners and helping with our dog to raising funds to help pay medical bills and the mortgage - we had so many people help us that we can never thank them enough or repay them.

This is the reason we started Heroes Like Haley - because I know first hand exactly what these families are facing - and we want to help alleviate some of that financial burden.

The hardest part about having a child with a brain tumor is knowing that your child might die, the daily struggles that you have to endure fighting for their lives, the fear you hold in your heart facing each day - as different as they are. The guilt you hold in your heart, wondering why her, why not you, what decisions did you make that you could have done differently?

There will never be closure. I will always have the guilt that my daughter died and I couldn't save her. Waking up and facing the day is a challenge every morning, but I know in my heart that Haley is watching over me and guiding me through each day, hour, minute.