South Jersey community surprises 5-year-old cancer survivor with parade

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (WPVI) -- A South Jersey neighborhood celebrated the homecoming of one of its own with a parade on Saturday.

5-year-old Gavin Todd from Washington Township returned home after months in the hospital fighting cancer. His neighborhood surprised him with a parade involving first responders, sports teams, Santa Claus, and his favorite superhero, Spider Man.

"Ever since Gavin was born, we was like superhuman," said his mom, Mary Todd. "He crawled early, walked early. He's always been incredibly physically capable, a natural born athlete."

That's how Mary knew something was seriously wrong back in October when her bundle of energy was often in too much pain to get out of bed.

"When this hit him, it was like, rocked our whole world," she said.

He was diagnosed with Lymphoma and for the last few months, he has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment at CHOP.

"We've been through hell and back," said Mary.

Back, as in back home. Gavin was released from the hospital Thursday and was surprised with a welcome home parade courtesy of PopPop's Kustom Kars.

"I'm here to give joy, give smiles, take any of the bad memories out of their family or their family friend's heads and put smiles on kid's faces," said Rich "PopPop" Nardiello.

Gavin isn't completely out of the woods yet. He will still have follow-up appointments and doctors will be monitoring him. But he's home. and that means life can go back to a new form of normal for the Todd family.

That includes returning to his active, happy life. Perhaps no one is more excited about that than his beloved Tee ball coach.

"I am also a cancer survivor, so this hits very close to home for me," said Alyssa Raymond. "The perfect way to start a new year is being here today and seeing that little boy being cancer free."