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Saturday 02 of November 2024

Iowa boy who wanted racing stickers for his casket dies


FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2018, file photo, 11-year-old Caleb Hammond grins before heading out in a stock car designed for children on the Southern Iowa Speedway dirt track in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The Iowa boy with Leukemia who wanted racing stickers to cover his casket has died.  Michael Sytsma of Bates Funeral Chapel in Oskaloosa confirmed that Caleb Hammond died Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. He declined to say where.  (Angie Holland, Oskaloosa Herald via AP, File),FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2018, file photo, 11-year-old Caleb Hammond grins before heading out in a stock car designed for children on the Southern Iowa Speedway dirt track in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The Iowa boy with Leukemia who wanted racing stickers to cover his casket has died.  Michael Sytsma of Bates Funeral Chapel in Oskaloosa confirmed that Caleb Hammond died Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. He declined to say where.  (Angie Holland, Oskaloosa Herald via AP, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2018, file photo, 11-year-old Caleb Hammond grins before heading out in a stock car designed for children on the Southern Iowa Speedway dirt track in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The Iowa boy with Leukemia who wanted racing stickers to cover his casket has died. Michael Sytsma of Bates Funeral Chapel in Oskaloosa confirmed that Caleb Hammond died Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. He declined to say where. (Angie Holland, Oskaloosa Herald via AP, File),FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2018, file photo, 11-year-old Caleb Hammond grins before heading out in a stock car designed for children on the Southern Iowa Speedway dirt track in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The Iowa boy with Leukemia who wanted racing stickers to cover his casket has died. Michael Sytsma of Bates Funeral Chapel in Oskaloosa confirmed that Caleb Hammond died Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. He declined to say where. (Angie Holland, Oskaloosa Herald via AP, File)

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — An 11-year-old Iowa boy who wanted racing stickers to cover his casket has died.

Michael Sytsma (SIHTZ’-muh), of Bates Funeral Chapel in Oskaloosa, says Caleb Hammond died Monday. He declined to say where.

Caleb’s stepmother, Kaylee Hammond, posted a photo of the boy on her Facebook page and said in a post Saturday that he had taken a turn for the worse Friday.

His family brought him home to Oskaloosa, about 55 miles southeast of Des Moines, after determining the painful leukemia treatments he’d been undergoing at a Des Moines hospital weren’t working and other options offered little hope.

Race drivers and others answered his call for the stickers, and he was even given a chance to drive a race car at a local track, under the guidance of a 12-year-old racer.

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Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com