Josie Kimberlin is one 4-year-old who knows what real superheroes are made of.

They aren’t composed of muscles made of steel, or men flying around in the sky, or even women with impossibly tight leather suits. Instead, real superheroes are made of courage, bravery, and kindness. All of which this one little girl has displayed before she even entered kindergarten.

And the best part is — she completely knows her own strength.

Diagnosed in 2013 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Josie went into remission nine months after her cancer was discovered. So the night before “Superhero Day” at school, Josie’s mother, Alyssa Butler, encouraged her daughter to dress up as herself instead of a classic superhero. Butler told The Huffington Post:

“We were going through her closet the night before and she didn’t really have anything with any kind of superhero stuff on it, so I asked her, ‘Do you just want to go as yourself? Because you know you’re mommy’s superhero. And she just kind of ran with the idea and she loved it.”

Butler explained to Babble that she told Josie that she was her hero and how brave she was.

“She smiled, lit up with a glow that could light the night sky, put her hands up, and acted like she was flying! She felt awesome – she is my hero, and we want to show the other kids battling cancer and disease how strong they are. How they aren’t alone fighting, how they are their own superhero.”

According to her Facebook page, Josie’s Journey, strength has been a common theme in the family’s experience with cancer.

“My daughter has shown me how strong a child really is, how smart a woman really can be, and how easy my heart is broken. The day I heard the news of my angel having cancer, I completely lost it. Shortly after, I looked at her sweet smile and realized that I have to stand up be a stronger mother.”

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We are so incredibly saddened to learn of local hero, Lenny Robinson’s tragic passing this past weekend. We had the chance to meet Mr. Robinson at Children’s in DC when Alex was there for ICE-T treatment and rehab back in 2012 and again at a Life With Cancer Father/Son night. Mr. Robinson had a truly remarkable giving heart and a love for bringing joy to kids who were sick for various reasons. Our most sincere condolences go out to Lenny Robinson’s family and friends, he truly will be missed by all who had the opportunity to know him.

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The 25-year-old singer gave $50,000 (£32,417) to an 11-year-old fan currently undergoing leukemia treatment on Tuesday evening, after discovering that her six-to-ninth month stay in hospital would mean she would miss Swift’s concert in August.

The family of Naomi Oakes, from Arizona, set up a crowdfunding website after discovering her diagosis of acute myelogenous leukaemia at the end of June.

Her medical bills, her uncle wrote on the page, came to $2,000 within the first 48 hours of her first visiting the doctor, and they were hoping to raise $30,000 in charitable donations to cover the bills for Oakes’ treatment.

Swift made three $15,000 donations and one of $5,000, along with the message: “To the beautiful and brave Naomi, I’m sorry you have to miss it, but there will always be more concerts. Let’s focus on getting you feeling better. I’m sending the biggest hugs to you and your family.”

It’s likely that Swift saw the video Oakes’ family made, which showed how the little girl had chosen the singer’s latest single Bad Blood as her ‘fight song’.

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Some people believe there is unfairness in the way the Triple Crown is run. You also could argue that it is unfair to consider a jockey a loser for falling short in the Belmont Stakes after he has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Victor Espinoza, though, thinks the unfairness that really matters is any that deprives a child of a fair shot at life.

For years, the jockey who hopes to ride American Pharoah into history Saturday has been determined to do something about the latter. He donates 10 percent of everything he wins to City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment center in Duarte, California — near Espinoza’s home, and not really all that far from the dairy farm in Mexico on which he grew up as the second youngest of 12.

No one in his family suffered from childhood cancer and no one instructed him to tithe. “I just saw one kid with that disease and that’s how I changed my life. I changed the way I think. Pretty much I changed everything,” he said. “For me, health is No. 1.”

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Khameyea Jennings made quite the entrance into her prom. @senmarks drove her there in his lambo. pic.twitter.com/DQ09LvdGEs

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) May 3, 2015

When NFL player Sen’Derrick Marks partnered with the Dreams Come True program, he had just one goal: to “do something where you actually make someone’s day, to a make a difference in someone’s life.”

Over the weekend, the defensive tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars fulfilled this promise by helping a teenager with cancer have a night she’ll likely never forget. He brought her, in great style, to prom.

Khameyea Jennings is an 18-year-old student at Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology in Jacksonville, Florida. She was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2013.

Marks was connected to Jennings through Dreams Come True, a program that helps fulfill the wishes of children and teens in Florida who have life-threatening illnesses. Last week, Marks visited the teen at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville to ask her one important question.

“I talked with your mom, she said it was OK,” Marks said to Jennings, an enormous bouquet of flowers in his arms. “I heard you had a prom this weekend and I wanted to know if I can take you to prom.”

The teen said “yes.”

On Saturday evening, Marks — bearing gifts for the teen, including a beautiful tiara — met her at her home. Together, they rode to prom in his Lamborghini.

“All I want to do is make sure she continues to smile and make sure she has a good time tonight,” Marks told WJAX-TV.

As they entered the venue, Marks pushing Jennings in a wheelchair, the duo were reportedly met with applause and cheers.

“She said this is a day to be normal, not to have to worry about needles, chemo, potassium levels,” the teen’s mom told the Florida Times-Union, “Just a day to be a teenager and enjoy the prom.”

On Monday, Marks shared a photograph of the memorable evening with his Twitter fans, and expressed awe at Jennings’ bravery.

Continue to fight and show others the Strenght and faith u have Khameyea. #angelonearth #khameyeajennings pic.twitter.com/dQauCcfkIs

— Sen'Derrick Marks (@senmarks) May 3, 2015

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It’s never too early to learn about setting goals, and kindergartners at Norwood School in Bethesda set an ambitious goal for themselves: to collect 5,000 boxes of bandages for pediatric cancer patients at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington.

As part of a lesson on compassion — the private school’s value of the month for November — the students decided to collect the bandages for young patients being treated at the hospital, said kindergarten teacher Shannon van Yperen. And not just any bandages, but colorful, superhero, cartoon character, crazy design bandages — anything but plain old hospital bandages.

What they got was 7,130 boxes, which, when added to the boxes collected at Mater Dei School in Bethesda, totaled 10,000 boxes. Dr. Aziza T. Shad, chief of pediatrics at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Care Center, accepted the bandages during an all-school assembly Friday at Norwood.

For the young patients who get needle sticks from injections or blood draws, a little thing like the opportunity to select a fancy bandage brings a lot of happiness, Shad told the children.

“Keep the spirit of giving,” she said. “That’s what is going to make you a wonderful, wonderful human being.”

Also at the assembly was Ryan Darby, a fifth-grader at Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda and a cancer survivor who was treated at Georgetown.

“I think it will make a huge difference, getting a [fancy] bandage,” Ryan said. “It might not seem like much, but it brings happiness.”

Kindergartner Ellery Camet, 6, said she brought in 30 boxes of bandages. She went to neighbors and her grandparents for help with donations.

“I was happy that I was collecting bandages for sick kids,” she said.

James Walters, 5, said he selected bandages with cars on them and some with Ninja Turtles. His classmate Henry Marriott, 5, chose to donate those with airplanes on them, and Sara Groban, 6, selected princess bandages.

“I thought compassion is getting bandages for people who are sick,” said Fionnuala Steuart, 5.

That was the lesson van Yperen hoped the students would learn from the collection drive.

“It’s kids helping kids,” she said. “It’s concrete.”

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Santa Claus usually does all the traveling, but this time, a group of kids flew from Dulles International Airport to the North Pole to meet the big guy himself.

Now in its 25th year, United Airlines offered a Fantasy flight for hundreds of children with serious diseases. Once in the air, the pilot reached a “top secret altitude” and warned kids to keep the window shades down.

Santa has a mystery passage to the North Pole that he wants to keep a secret from the Grinch.

“Basically, we’re going on a plane to the North Pole and then we’re going to meet Santa,” says Alex Green, 10, who is fighting pediatric cancer. “It makes me happy because, since I have cancer, I’m doing something fun and I can actually go to the North Pole.”

Alex’s mother, Jenny, says he was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Wilms’ Tumor when he was five years old.

“To see all these kids smiling, it’s emotional,” she says. “Pulling into the airport, I got teary eyed seeing all the volunteers that come together and make this happen. It’s wonderful.”

Kids walked through the “North Pole” terminal greeted by dozens of volunteers — including a band, Spongebob Squarepants, Elmo, The Racing Presidents, cheerleaders — and of course, Santa.

Denise Robinson-Palmer, base manager of flight attendants, says she looks forward to this “fantasy flight” every year.

“Today I was with a kid and I got a little choked up, so I had to walk away because this is not a time for us to get into that,” Robinson-Palmer says. “It’s a time to make them feel like today is the most wonderful day to them.”

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“To another little girl.”

That’s what 3-year-old Ariana of Winterport, Maine, said when her father Josh Smith asked where her donated hair was going to go.

It was then that the dad of two realized his toddler had a heart that was too big for words.

“I do a charity called Extra Life where I play video games to help raise money for kids,” he said. “Ariana happened to be sitting on my lap when a video played showing a little girl who was bald, lying in a hospital bed with tubes in her.”

When their daughter showed curiosity, Smith and his wife Crystal explained how medicine was what made the child in the video lose her hair.

“Without a second thought, Ariana said ‘Oh, well she can have some of my hair,’” Smith said. “That’s when my wife clued me in that they have these organizations where we could donate it.”

The Smiths chose “Locks of Love” to send Ariana’s generous gift to a child with medical hair loss.

A week later, Ariana was taken to the family hairdresser where 10 inches was cut from her hair.

“It was her first haircut,” Smith told ABC News. “She could be so selfless like that. Her first reaction is ‘How about I give up something that I have so a little girl can feel pretty’.

Smith posted his daughter’s moving gesture on his Imgur page, where it’s received almost 645,000 views in just two days.

“She’ll take an adult-like approach and it’s really amazing,” Smith said. “She is a typical little kid, but if she sees somebody in need, she certainly nurtures them. This made Ariana feel special and she’d definitely like to do it again.”

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