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Family receives rent-free home while child battles cancer

The Myers family from Abilene thought they'd have to sell their home so their daughter could get cancer treatment in Fort Worth. Instead, community members fixed up a home the family is now staying in for free -- and they won't be the only ones.

FORT WORTH -- Little Baylee Myers believes in magic. She showed us when we met her Friday afternoon.

"Aw, we need more potion!" she said, waving her wand.

So it would only be fitting that she and her family would be the recipients of a pretty magical deal.

Baylee Myers casting spells with her "magic wand."

"We didn’t know what to say, honestly. We were so speechless," said her mom, Stephanie. "I mean, who does that? You know, it's like... Who does that?"

Earlier this year, Baylee, a 3-year-old from Abilene, was diagnosed with cancer. Her neuroblastoma would need to be treated 150 miles away from home, at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Stephanie said she felt emotionally and financially drained.

Baylee Myers dancing and twirling in front of her mother, Stephanie.

"It was scary," she said. "We thought we were going to move."

That is, until their church community at Beltway Park Baptist Church in Abilene found out.

A family at their church donated a home they owned in Fort Worth. And with the time and donations of countless people, they gutted it, renovated it, and offered it to the Myers family rent- and bill-free, so they can live in Fort Worth for Baylee's treatment and not have to sell their home.

"Baylee saw that house for the first time, and said 'Mommy, this is my room?' That’s all I needed to hear," said Troy Deal, one of the people who helped organize the project. "That’s all any of us needed to hear."

Baylee's House in Fort Worth

They're calling it Baylee's House.

"Once this family's done with it, we'll move another family in," Deal said. "And when they're done, we'll move another family. Hopefully, we can minister out to hundreds of families."

Deal said his church hopes to eventually have ten homes to offer to families needing hospital care in Fort Worth.

"I cried," Stephanie said of when she saw the home.

It's a gesture that changed her family's life -- and will change other family's lives, too.

A look at the renovated interior of Baylee's House.

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