Baking around family life
Customers can find sourdough bread, cookies and muffins at Weatherwax's stand at Eastern Avenue and Pleasant Hill Road. The proceeds go toward Alec's chemotherapy medicine, which costs about $2,000 per box, Weatherwax told Inside Edition in a report published Sept. 26, 2026.
Alec was barely 2 months old when he was diagnosed with a rare vascular tumor, changing life for Weatherwax and her husband, Joe. Seven years later, she combines running the bakery with caring for Alec and his younger brother, Everett, 4.
Her work extends beyond baking. A content creator and singer-songwriter as well as a mother and business owner, Weatherwax shares videos with thousands of online followers. Her sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable accounts of daily life bring together the bakery, parenting and her music. "Momcologist" is another of the titles she carries.
The rare tumor behind Alec's diagnosis
Alec's condition is kaposiform hemangioendothelioma, or KHE. A 2026 review published in BMC Pediatrics puts its estimated prevalence at about 0.91 per 100,000 children. According to the review, 93% of cases manifest in infancy, and onset occurs during the neonatal period in 60% of patients.
The review also describes a serious complication associated with KHE: Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon, which develops in 50% to 70% of children with the tumor. This potentially life-threatening consumptive coagulopathy involves thrombocytopenia and hypofibrinogenemia and has a reported mortality of up to 30%.
For treatment, the review says sirolimus, an mTOR inhibitor used off-label, is increasingly regarded as a first-line option for KHE. It cites a systematic review involving 215 KHE patients whose authors concluded that sirolimus should be considered first-line therapy to treat Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon and reduce tumor size.
