Special to the Herald

On July 1, 13-year-old Izzy Major walked out of the Hasbro Children’s Hospital, ringing a golden bell to signal her last day of treatment for leukemia.

She was met and celebrated by family and friends — as well as a host of Cranston police and fire department officers, who then ushered her into a white limousine. Flanked by a squad of police motorcycles and a firetruck, Major and her loved ones made their way to the Cranston Senior Center, where they were met by residents cheering and holding gifts. On their return home, a Card my Yard sign reading “No more chemo Izzy!” in big glittery letters greeted the family from their lawn.

“Izzy was excited, to keep it mild,” said Major’s mother Marilyn Martin. “But what little girl doesn’t like to be in a limo?”

Enzo’s Escorts, a police and fire nonprofit organization, provides VIP escorts for kids to and from their last cancer treatment, according to co-founder and Cranston police officer Rebekah Neri. Neri and her husband Dave, a lieutenant at the Cranston Fire Department, created Enzo’s Escorts after their son Lorenzo “Enzo” received a warm welcome from both of their departments on his last day of leukemia treatment in 2020. Since then, the organization has provided escorts to over 40 children, including yard signs, limousine rides and visits to the senior center.

“Two years ago, I was working temporarily as a school resource officer and heard of Izzy’s leukemia diagnosis through her school staff,” Neri said. She then reached out to Izzy’s school to organize a “special evening”: “Staff, students, family and the school resource officers gathered at Hasbro and set up underneath Izzy’s hospital room window with signs and lights to show our support.”

“We followed Izzy’s progress throughout her two years of treatment and were…honored to celebrate the end of treatment with Izzy and provide her with an Enzo’s Escort!” Neri added.

Martin recalled feeling “nervous and excited” as her daughter left the hospital.

“The realization that it’s coming to an end, that we’re there, that we’re finally at that finish line, it was exciting,” Martin said. “It made me happy to see Izabelle smile.”

According to Martin, their family looks forward to their lives returning to normal.

“Two years of her life was taken by this criminal of an illness,” Martin said. “What mom doesn’t want their little girl to be happy with her friends, going out, being a little girl and having fun?”

Throughout two years of hardship, Martin said, she drew strength from the “hope that your daughter puts you on this pedestal to be the best version of yourself.”

“I just found myself always remembering, I have to be strong for her,” Martin said, adding that she would have “crying sessions driving to work and behind the scenes” so her daughter wouldn’t be discouraged. “I knew that my daughter was going to look at me for that strength and power to know, ‘we’re going to be able to beat this.’”

She expressed gratitude for Enzo’s Escorts: “You have to have a special kind of heart to be aware and self conscious of giving someone else your time. Saying thank you is just not enough.”

According to Neri, residents at the senior center were “excited to celebrate with our hometown hero.”

“That was very nice and very unexpected,” Martin said. “We had our silent supporters, I wanna call them. Our silent supporters. That’s what they were.”

Over the next few months, Major will return to the hospital for follow-up appointments to check in on her progress.

“I’m just looking forward to knowing that month by month, as time goes by, Izzy’s gonna be okay,” Martin said.