ABOUT CHLOE’S JOURNEY OF FAITH
She Wanted You to Feel Like You Knew Her
Michelle has always hoped that when people hear Chloe’s story, they would leave feeling like they had truly known her. Not simply as the inspiration behind a nonprofit, but as the real little girl Chloe was — full of life, full of joy, with blue glasses, a beautiful smile, a love for soccer and art, and a faith in Jesus that carried her through what no child should ever have to face.
In April 2016, Chloe was playing goalkeeper in a soccer game when she was kicked in the head. In the weeks that followed, the headaches grew worse and worse until a CT scan changed everything. Within an hour, her family was told Chloe had a tumor the size of a walnut near her pineal gland. The diagnosis was glioblastoma multiforme — a rare and aggressive brain cancer in children, with mutations her doctors had never encountered before.
From that moment on, life became a journey of hospital rooms, treatment plans, and long miles between home and hope. Chloe first received care at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and later her treatment was transferred to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, about 300 miles from Texarkana. Michelle left her job of 30 years so she could stay by her daughter’s side. Again and again, the family made the drive, holding onto faith as tightly as they could.
But what stands out most about Chloe’s story is not only what she endured — it is how she endured it. Chloe loved Jesus, and that love shaped the way she walked through suffering. Even in pain, she had a heart for others. Even in uncertainty, she carried compassion. Even while facing a frightening diagnosis, she noticed the hurting children around her and wanted them to feel comforted, included, and loved.
Chloe’s faith was real. It was beautiful. It was brave. She trusted her Savior in the middle of the storm, and that trust became part of her testimony. Her life reminds us that faith is not the absence of fear, but the presence of God in the middle of it. Chloe’s Journey of Faith was created to honor that testimony — to let her light keep shining, to share the love of Christ, and to bring hope and encouragement to children and families walking through cancer.
Chloe Cox
HOW WE HELP
When a Child Gets Sick, Everything Stops
Michelle Cox knows exactly what it costs a family when a child is diagnosed with cancer. Not just medically—but in every other way.
Chloe started treatment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital before her care transferred to MD Anderson in Houston—300 miles from their home in Texarkana. Michelle left a job she’d held for 30 years to be at her daughter’s side. The family packed up, left behind their support system, and made that drive over and over, sometimes multiple times in a single month. The void left by Michelle’s income hit hard. Even as their community rallied around them, the cost of travel kept mounting.
That experience is exactly why financial assistance sits at the heart of what CJOF does.
When a child is in treatment, the bills at home don’t pause. Rent, utilities, groceries—those keep coming while one or both parents are sitting in a hospital room 300 miles away. Families face an impossible choice: stay home and work, or be with your child.
CJOF’s family stipend program exists so that choice doesn’t have to be made alone. We provide direct financial assistance to local families with children in cancer treatment—help with travel, lodging, and the everyday costs that pile up when life gets put on hold.
Chloe knew what it felt like to need that help. This foundation makes sure other families can get it.
The Blanket story
It Started With a Blanket
At MD Anderson, Chloe met children who had lost limbs, children who had faced complications she hadn’t imagined. She was going through her own chemotherapy — weak, worn down — and she looked at those kids and felt something she couldn’t set aside.
Chloe considered herself fortunate. She didn’t say that to minimize what she was facing. She said it because that’s who she was.
So she did something about it. She came home from Houston, gathered her school friends, and they tied fleece blankets together. Each one was embroidered with Chloe’s logo and Philippians 4:13 — “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Then, no matter how she felt after treatment, Chloe insisted on delivering them herself to children in the PICU.
Chloe passed away on July 26, 2017. Her family kept the blanket ministry going until COVID changed hospital policies. When they couldn’t continue that way, they built something larger.
On February 1, 2019 — Chloe’s birthday — Chloe’s Journey of Faith Foundation became an official 501(c)3 nonprofit. That date wasn’t planned. It felt, as Michelle has said, like a divine appointment.
the chloe memorial scholarship
A Future Built on Her Legacy
Chloe Cox was a bright girl who loved her family, soccer, and drawing. She was the kind of kid who showed up — for her friends, for her community, and for children she’d never even met who were fighting the same battle she was. She had a future ahead of her. Cancer took that future at 13 years old.
The Chloe Memorial Scholarship exists because Chloe’s story shouldn’t end there.
Every year, Chloe’s Journey of Faith Foundation awards scholarships to students in the Texarkana community who carry forward the same spirit Chloe had — faith, compassion, and a desire to make a difference. It’s one of the most direct ways this foundation says to the next generation: her life meant something, and yours does too.
Since 2018, we’ve awarded 27 scholarships totaling $16,000.
These aren’t just dollars toward a college bill. They’re a declaration that Chloe’s light is still going. That one 12-year-old girl who spent her last months making blankets for sick children and delivering them by hand didn’t just leave behind grief — she left behind a legacy worth building on.