DENVER, N.C. — When 5-year-old Ava was a baby, she battled several ear infections, a common illness for children.

But it was one particular day when she wasn't feeling good that her mother, Ashley Davis, took her to the pediatrician just before she was 2.

Her doctor ordered labs and blood work and immediately sent the family to Levine's Children's Hospital in Charlotte.

That's when the Mt. Holly family found out Ava had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

For months the family spent days in the hospital for radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Ava lost her hair, and Ashley Davis was asking the family life specialist if there was anything to cover her daughter's head.

The staff at Levine's displayed several beautiful headbands, of all colors, soft, and just the right size for a child. They were from Headbands of Hope, a small company from Denver, N.C.

"It was absolutely perfect," Davis says.

Headbands of Hope was the idea of Jess Ekstrom, a Lincoln County woman who in college was an intern at Make-A-Wish Foundation. After seeing children lose their hair, she began making headbands for them.

Now the company, based out of Lincoln County, ships all over the U.S. and worldwide. For every headband purchased, one is donated to a sick child.

“When we’re having a busy and stressful business day, we receive an email from a parent with a picture of a child who received a headband and saying, 'you brought so many smiles to our hospital room when it was so deep and so dark.' It really brings you back to reality and things to be thankful for,” says Lauren Dellinger, president of Headbands of Hope and a college friend of Ekstrom.

To find more information or buy a headband visit its website.