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Cops help 7-year-old Leukemia patient celebrate birthday

Posted at 3:44 PM, Mar 07, 2014
and last updated 2014-03-07 15:44:32-05

BURRIVILLE, R.I. (KTLA) -- Police officers and firefighters from across the U.S. converged on Burrillville, R.I., Thursday to help a cancer patient celebrate his 7th birthday.

Tyler Seddon is battling leukemia for the second time in his life.

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Other agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, sent cards, gifts and video greetings to Tyler Seddon, who is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the second time.

“Hey, Tyler … All your brothers and sisters here wish you a wonderfully happy birthday, and wish you a strong fight in your battle that you’re going through right now. We’re all with you,” said Lt. Robert Binder of the LAPD’s Air Support Division, in a video that included Chief Charlie Beck and officers from the department’s various units.

“You stay in the fight, little brother,” Beck said in the video. “You’re going to do great.”

The outpouring of support was spurred by a Facebook post in which Tyler’s mother, Rachel Seddon, asked first responders to send cards to her son to make the occasion special. The request went viral and culminated in Thursday’s festivities in Burrillville.

At the birthday party, where Tyler was named as the town’s honorary chief of police, Rachel Seddon described the piles of gifts that her son has received, WCVB reported.

“My house is full of boxes. We have a 10-by-20 storage unit that’s half full,” she said. “So we’ll have a lot of presents to go through – probably until his next birthday.”