JACKSONVILLE, Fl -- While most toddlers are learning to walk at age two, developing their motor skills, Harris Lott was in a different place. The toddler was fighting for his life.
"He developed abdominal pain," said Elizabeth Lott, his mother. "We think he was sick a long time and couldn't express it."
The pain would later become a medical diagnosis that turn their lives upside down.
It was Rhabdomyosarcoma, it is a soft tissue cancer.
The American Cancer Society reports about 400 cases occur each year in the United States.
In Summer 2015 in Waycross, Georgia -- three children were diagnosed with Rhabdomyoscarcoma, and a fourth with Ewing Sarcoma all within a 60 day period.
Harris Lott is one of those children.
"It was a shock. I don't remember a lot at that time," she said.
Both McGregor and Elizabeth Lott are physicians, but they are parents first, and Harris's medical diagnosis became their primary concern.
"Your mind goes crazy with the what if," she said.
There were questions, many of them. How did this happen? Why so many children in two months?
"He was in pain and we were really scared our child would have a bad prognosis," said Dr. Lott.
What was making them sick? Was it environmental? They wanted to know.
"We had our soil, our air, our water, dust from our rug all tested," said McGregor Lott, "we could not find anything."
A fourth generation Waycross resident he said it became precarious, so they decided to move from the Georgia community they love.
"I feel that something happened environmentally," he said.
The community had four childhood cancers in one Summer, and zero answers, not even today.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry recently released its initial health assessment report and it was inconclusive
"I think it is encouraging that the analysis did not find a Cancer Cluster,' said McGregor Lott, " but I question the methodology of their study."
Harris would face ten months of chemotherapy and 30 does of radiation.
"We don't know what causes Rhabdomyoscarmo," said Elizabeth Lott. "If we don't know what causes it how are we going to point a finger."
Doctors say there's no evidence of cancer today in Harris, even so he has to have scans every few months and his parents say it always triggers their worst fears.
"About 48 hours before a scan happens, until we have the answer we don't sleep," she said.
They're waiting for the words his doctors would not say, at least not yet.
"They won't use the words that we want to hear, 'remission,' 'cancer free.' And they say we won't be hearing that for a long time," she said.
For now, they are grateful for where they are now; standing on their faith
"We really did experience a lot of peace I just felt like the Lord was I have never felt him so close," said Elizabeth Lott.
It has been a long journey and they know they are not the first to travel this road.
"To other families that are going through it is one step at a time and be thankful that you are taking a step," she said.
They know the same cancer has taken the lives of other children in their Waycross, Georgia community.
"The story about Waycross and cancer has been very sad as it is but we wanted people to see Harris that he is here today and still fighting," said Lott.
Still fighting and now behaving like a five year old. But he is a child who now understands like an adult the disease that ravaged his body.
When asked by his mother his thoughts on cancer, his response was unfiltered, yet poignant.
"They will get sick and it is very bad," said Harris.
This year he started kindergarten and he is trying to let his cancer be a thing of his past.