300 Flash Mob Dancers Help Cheer Up Royal Oak Girl With Cancer

ROYAL OAK— Fighting cancer takes a team. Family. Doctors and nurses. And, sometimes, friends both old and new.

For 9-year-old Tessa Prothero, a small army of new friends helped brighten her mood on Monday. A flash mob of 300 dancers descended on her Royal Oak home to augment her family’s dance party.

Mission accomplished, according to her dad.

“This made her feel good today,” Robert Prothero told the Detroit News. “This brightened her spirits up.”

Tessa was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form of brain cancer, 31/2 years ago. Since then, she and her family have fought the disease with everything they have.

Royal Oak-based Gilda’s Club came up with the flash mob idea. A brother of a staffer of the organization, a professional dancer, helped train a variety of participants in Monday’s event, the Detroit News reported.

The group ended up performing two dances after Tessa asked for an encore. Too weak to walk outside to watch the dancers, the 9-year-old’s cousin, William Prothero, held her in his arms.

“She’s still fighting,” Tessa’s mother, Karin Prothero, told the Detroit News. “We’re doing different clinical trials and hoping the next one will get her clear.”

The elaborate dance session is far from the only support Tessa has received.

In 2015, her family established a crowdfunding campaign to help defray some of the cost in paying medical bills. To date, nearly $45,000 has been raised, according to Crowdwise.

On June 3, a fundraiser for Tessa will be held at Upton Elementary School in Royal Oak. The school is located at 4400 Mandalay Avenue.

Karin Prothero also maintains a “Team Tessa: Battle against Neuroblastoma” Facebook page. The flash mob dance received rave reviews from family and friends on the page:

Photo courtesy of Karin Prothero