SEMO family pushes to bring childhood cancer awareness license plate to Missouri

FOX23 News at 9 p.m

JACKSON, Mo. (KBSI) — A southeast Missouri family is working to bring a childhood cancer awareness license plate to the state — a mission they say is about more than just recognition, but creating lasting awareness and support for families facing similar battles.

Amanda and Brandon Hill, founders of Friends of Wyatt, have spent years pushing for the specialty plate, which would both raise awareness and generate funding for childhood cancer programs and research.

The effort is now close to the finish line. The family needs 200 completed applications to move forward — and says they are just 93 signatures away from reaching that goal.

“It just puts it out there,” Brandon Hill said. “Childhood cancer is a real thing, and there’s not a lot of funding for it. The more people that know about it, the more people might get involved.”

For the Hills, the mission is deeply personal.

Their son, Wyatt, was just two years old when he was diagnosed with leukemia after weeks of unexplained illness.

“We weren’t sleeping,” Amanda Hill said. “I was holding him in a recliner at night, and he would just cry all night long.”

After multiple trips to the doctor and no clear answers, further testing revealed something was seriously wrong. Wyatt was flown to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where doctors confirmed the diagnosis.

“When we walked in, the doctor came right behind us and said, ‘Your son has leukemia. This is what the next three and a half years are going to look like,’” Amanda Hill said.

Wyatt began treatment the next day.

During that time, the Hills created Friends of Wyatt — an organization aimed at supporting other families going through similar experiences, while also helping them cope with their own.

“We saw a lot of needs in the hospital,” Brandon Hill said. “Things that could make the stay more comfortable for kids and families.”

The organization provides backpacks filled with activities for children in treatment, along with other forms of support for families navigating the challenges of childhood cancer.

The idea for the license plate came later — during what Brandon Hill described as a simple trip to the DMV.

“There were plates for a lot of causes,” he said. “But childhood cancer wasn’t one of them.”

From there, the family began researching what it would take to create one.

The process included legislative approval, gathering hundreds of petition signatures, and raising initial funding — all of which have already been completed. Now, the final hurdle is collecting enough applications to bring the plate statewide.

If approved, a portion of the funds generated from the plates would go directly back into programs through Friends of Wyatt, as well as research efforts — including work being done at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

“There’s always something going on with research,” Hill said. “And we want to be a part of that.”

While the effort first gained traction nearly a decade ago, it eventually lost momentum — something Hill admits was discouraging at the time.

But a personal moment helped reignite the push.

After his grandmother passed away, Hill said he noticed she had kept a framed image of the license plate design in her home — something she had hoped to see become a reality.

“She was just waiting for that to happen,” he said. “And I realized we couldn’t give up on it.”

Now, the family is once again working to finish what they started — with growing support from the community.

Local businesses, friends, and even strangers have stepped forward to help, many of whom have been personally impacted by childhood cancer.

The plate itself carries special meaning. It features a handprint created by Amanda and Wyatt, who is almost 16 years old and looking forward to one day having the plate on his own car.

As the Hills continue their push, they say awareness remains the driving force behind it all.

“We just can’t let it fail this time,” Hill said.

More infomation can be found on either facebook page: Kiddie Cancer Plate MO, Friends of Wyatt