Young Girl Fighting Cancer Needs More Patches

Little Sophia Covalito of South Toms River, NJ, is fighting a battle way beyond her four years of age.

This March, Sophia was diagnosed with inoperable brain tumor that has spread to her spine and the lining of her brain, causing blindness in her right eye.

If you look at photos of Sophia and her family, though, you'd never know.

With infectious smiles and dogged determination to fight, Sophia, her sister Isabella, and parents Lindsay and Michael are a beacon of strength and bravery:

One of the things that has kept Sophia's spirits up has been her growing first responder patch collection.

Sophia's mother Lindsay tells me that the collection started when the South Toms River Police Department made her an honorary officer. She's since added patches from the Lavallette Police Department as well as South Toms River EMS.

Right now, Sophia's collection includes half a dozen patches, but I think that we can make that number a lot bigger, so this is where we can jump in and help.

I'm putting the call out to police departments, EMS crews, fire departments, heck, any first responder group that has a patch, send them to Sophia!

Share this far and wide: let's get Sophia patches from around New Jersey, around the country, honestly, I don't see why we can't get some from around the world.

You can drop them in the mail and send them to the Lavallette Police Department here:

PBA 372
P.O. Box 372
Lavallette, NJ 08735

You can stay up to date with Sophia's journey on both Facebook and Instagram by following the #FightWithFi hashtag.