CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina mother is expressing gratitude to a Charlotte hospital through her volunteer work after the hospital treated her daughter’s tumor. 

Mary Leach helps parents make memories with their critically ill newborn children, saying she understands the feeling of helplessness all too well.

What You Need To Know

  •  Mary Leach takes pictures of NICU babies at Novant Health

  •  Leach is determined to give back to the hospital, after it treated her daughter's cancer

  •  Capturing Hopes Photography provides free photos to parents 

“I’m here as long as I need to be to capture all the little babies and the families,” Leach said while visiting the NICU at Novant Health in Charlotte.

Leach visits once a month to take photos of the babies and their parents, creating memories of milestone moments for families, who are often overwhelmed with other concerns. 

“We are here with Capturing Hopes Photography, and we are here to take pictures of the little babies here in the NICU,” Leach explained.

Novant Health’s NICU is filled with babies born prematurely, with birth defects or severe complications. Some of the children will spend months in the NICU. So, Leach takes her time, often spending hours capturing new parents with their precious patients.

“And then just relax, I’m gonna have you relax—,” Leach told one mom while taking photos, “Perfect, yeah just like that.”

It’s a feeling Leach said she can understand, after experiencing her daughter’s medical emergency in recent years.

“I know what it’s like being here day in and day out,” Leach said. “While their child is here in the hospital and going through treatment or just here to grow. And so I just— I see what it’s like being day in and day out sometimes, and how hard that can be.”

Three years ago, Leach and her daughter, Sara, received devastating news after a routine physical for high school softball. 

“[The doctor] grabbed on her feet, and he was like, you have a tumor— we found a mass in your brain. We kinda just looked at each other,” Leach said about the diagnosis.

Sara was diagnosed with an optic nerve pathway glioma after an eye exam raised a red flag.

“We were transported here to [Hemby Children’s Hospital] and she went through a 2.5-hour MRI that night. She had emergency brain surgery the next day,” Leach recalled.

Sara had a cyst removed from her brain, but doctors were not able to remove the tumor. Now, she takes a chemotherapy pill to keep it at bay. Doctors will meet to discuss a new strategy in the coming months.

But as Sara battled her tumor, Leach was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer less than a year later.

“She doesn’t know what she did for me when I went through my treatment,” Leach said through tears. “Because, I saw my 16-year-old go through chemo, she was sick and tired. She never complained one time. So I’m like, if my daughter who is 16-years-old can go through treatment, I can go through treatment.”

They got through it together and now want to give back. Sara is a pharmacy technician, hoping to help future patients in professional health care. 

“After my tumor and what happened, my perspective on it changed. And it just, pushed me even more to be in the health care system,” Sara said.

Meanwhile, Leach continues taking photos each month.

“She had brain surgery Monday morning and by Friday she was dancing in the halls. And they’re like, ‘OK, you can go home now.’ And so, it’s just— we’re just beyond grateful and thankful,” Leach said.

Leach beat her breast cancer and does photography at private events when she’s not at the hospital.

Next month, they’ll be back here at Novant again, connecting new parents and their babies through pictures, turning a hospital snapshot into permanent memories with moms and dads.