BILLINGS - A Billings family turned personal tragedy into bringing hope and inspiration to young patients battling cancer.
The family lost a loved one to cancer 10 years ago and is now living out his memory by giving back to those currently in the fight.
The Eaton family and its group United Luv brings iPads to patients going through cancer treatments.
The idea is to use that technology to allow them to stay in touch with family and friends.
Sheldon and Vicki Eaton give some comfort to Johanna Hanna after bringing an iPad to her son, Ethan Sanchez, who is going through treatment for cancer at Billings Clinic.
"It's pretty cool," said Hanna. "It was a surprise. We didn't know about this program."
Monday was a tough day for Ethan.
He wasn't quite up for an interview, but the special delivery definitely helped.
"He's not feeling so great," Hanna said. "But he's really happy and excited about it."
"We came in and said we had a little surprise for him to help him through his treatment," said Vicki Eaton. "And he said 'okay, yeah, thanks.' But then he looked in the basket and he said, 'whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Are you kidding me?' So that was fun. He was pretty excited."
Hanna said her son, who is a junior at West High School, will use the iPad for doing some of his online classes.
The Eaton family put together United Luv, an idea from Ryan Eaton, who died from cancer in 2013.
"Our son through many trips said, 'I'm going to still do my T-shirt business, but I'm going to give every penny back and try to provide iPads for big patients.'" Vicki Eaton said. "So unfortunately, he didn't get to see that happen. But we're carrying it on for him."
The Eatons were able to be with Ryan during treatment, but Ryan saw that other patients did not always have family with them.
"He just felt so tender about trying to help these other kids and primarily they were kids in there at the time," said Sheldon Eaton. "And it's like, 'just go down there. Has anybody been there.' It just broke his heart."
The Eatons have also helped seniors and are now healing others by bringing the technology to help them communicate.
So far, they've given away 600 iPads to patients of all ages.
"It's always bittersweet, but it's just something we feel we definitely want to keep doing to honor him," Vicki said.
"We're blessed to be able to do that," Sheldon Eaton said.
"He's a tough kid," Hanna said. "He's funny and he keeps us busy. Keeps us laughing. He's been laughing. He'll have a couple bad days, but for the most part, he's really cool."
The Glow Run, which has been postponed the last few years, is the biggest fundraiser for United Luv.
