On Easter Sunday in 2025, Clayton Vaughan wasn’t in church or spending time with extended family. He was in the hospital.

“There were so many kids there on Easter Sunday,” Clayton’s mom, Lori, remembers. “There were 19 other children in the hospital with brain tumors, and the doctor told us Clay was the only one who was treatable.”

On Christmas Eve the year before, Clay was diagnosed with pineal germinoma, a rare brain cancer that had been growing since he was a fetus.

Before the diagnosis, Clay was thriving as a college student at the University of Georgia. Then he began experiencing a sudden onset of migraines. 

From the symptoms he described, Lori thought it was just a bad sinus infection. Clay went to the emergency room where doctors found a mass on his CAT scan. 

“We were flown to North Fulton where [the doctors] put a shunt in because the tumor was blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. He had tremendous hydrocephalus, and none of the doctors could even believe that he could see. They couldn’t believe that he was functioning,” Lori explained. 

Then began four months of chemotherapy in Atlanta.

The Vaughans lived 55 miles south of Atlanta and had to decide whether they would travel to each appointment or if Lori and Clay would live nearby.

“The last thing I needed to be worried about was, ‘How am I going to get through Atlanta traffic? How are we going to get up there when he’s sick, nauseous and vomiting? Am I going to have to pull over on the interstate with traffic flying by?’”

Then Clay’s doctor recommended Joyce’s Place, a nonprofit that offers fully furnished apartments to cancer patients and their families near the Emory Proton Therapy Center.

The location and the privacy were critical during Clay’s treatment. He was able to walk to his treatments, and when he was up to it, he and Lori made memories together in Atlanta. They visited the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, Zoo Atlanta, the College Football Hall of Fame and so much more.

Joyce’s Place also offered Clay and Lori opportunities to interact with other patients and families when they chose and to retreat to their own private space where they could rest and welcome their immediate and extended family. 

“The family room provided extra solace for my parents and sister and Clay’s brother and father to visit and eat with us,” Lori shared. “Our room was perfect for us — quiet and clean. We watched movies together and enjoyed morning coffee on our balcony.” 

Clay and Lori also found encouragement through their relationship with Steve Bostic, a Joyce’s Place board member, and his wife.

“They made us feel like family,” Lori shared. “Steve and Clay have so much in common. We would sit in the family room and have long discussions about the future. They really took us under their wing.”

After difficult months of treatment, Clay received a clean bill of health. 

At his bell-ringing celebration surrounded by friends and family, Clay thanked God for bringing him through that season and prayed for the patients he met on this journey.

His speech was, for Lori, an answer to prayer.

“About a year before his diagnosis, Clay told me he was struggling to believe the Bible and just didn’t see a need for it in his life,” Lori said. “It devastated me, and I prayed that God would show himself to Clay.”

In the dark days of cancer, Clay saw God working. 

“He provided every single thing that we needed. They just kept falling into place,” she explained. 

“So many people we would run into would say, ‘I don’t know you, but our church has been praying for you.’ Clay was seeing [God’s provision]. Now, he’s going to church and reading his Bible. In a way, I prayed for [the cancer journey]. It took something major like that, but I feel that Clay is going to do something amazing in his life.”

This year, Clay spent Easter Sunday in church with his family, and he’s back in school.

Recently, Clay and Lori penned a letter to Joyce’s Place, their “home away from home” during Clay’s treatment.

“Thank you again for providing such a warm, supportive and healing environment,” it reads. “Your kindness and care will never be forgotten.”

“We thank the Lord for providing us with it,” Lori added.

We invite you to join us in prayer for cancer patients and their families and for Joyce’s Place. If you would like to support cancer patients and their families through Joyce’s Place, click here to donate to their fund.