8-year-old SWFL boy battling cancer for the fourth time, pandemic making it harder on him and his family

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Adyn Pickett, 8-years-old (WINK News)

You may remember 8-year-old Adyn Pickett. We first introduced you to him last year when a special Southwest Florida fundraiser helped his family pay medical bills.

Adyn is now battling cancer for the fourth time.

In green dinosaur shorts and highlighter yellow bandages, Adyn is all smiles. He’s beat cancer three times, now he’s going for four.

“Just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago and he’s playing Nerf guns with his nurses,” Adyn’s dad, James Pickett, said.

Meanwhile, dad James is fighting to control his emotions.

“Each and every time it’s happened, it’s worse than it was the time before. It cuts a little deeper every single time,” he said.

Making things even worse, because of COVID-19, James and Adyn’s sister, Abby, can’t be by his side.

“You get right on the cusp of some normalcy and then, boom, that’s all taken away and literally overnight, we are back into a scenario where Abby and Adyn will not see each other in person for at least a month,” said James.

Adyn is always on the go, either with a toy car or legos in hand. His dad says that hasn’t changed.

“He did take with him 10 or 15 boxes of Legos with him the last time,” he said.

That’s exactly why Fort Myers Brewing put the Lego logo on their new line of beer cans called “Adyn Strong.” For every six-pack sold, some of the money goes to support the Pickett family’s medical costs.

Fort Myers Brewing’s Adyn Strong beer raises money to pay for the Pickett family’s medical bills. (WINK News)

“Anything we can do to kind of ease that financial burden for the family, something that was important to us,” said Monica Dixon with Fort Myers Brewing.

As for James, he’s counting down the days until he gets to see his son again.

“When I get up to the hospital and it’s like, ‘Hey buddy, what do you wanna do?’ ‘Let’s build a Lego.'”

Dad hopes to see his son this weekend and Fort Myers Brewing said it’s taking orders for more of those special cans through Friday.

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