John Taggart, 5, dies after his three-year battle with cancer

John Kelly Taggart fought against cancer for three years before his struggle ended. The Costa Mesa 5-year-old shared his last moments with his parents at Children’s Hospital of Orange County before he died at noon Oct. 21.

“We’d given him permission to stop fighting and go to Heaven,” his father Kelly Taggart said.

John was born Aug. 18, 2000. Shortly after his second birthday, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. In the three years following his diagnosis, John Taggart and his parents Kelly and Tamara fought through a series of medical crises. In his short life, John Taggart endured the challenges of chemotherapy, multiple relapses, kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

“[John was] by far the toughest and bravest person I’d ever met,” said John’s father, a Los Angeles City firefighter.

In June, the Taggart family was joined by members of the Newport Beach Fire Department in an effort to aid other families battling childhood cancer. Participating in the Alex’s Lemonade Stand event, the Taggarts raised about $10,000 in donations as they offered lemonade and cookies to Fashion Island shoppers. The fundraiser is named after Alexandra Scott, a Pennsylvania girl who died of the same cancer that John Taggart had.

At the fundraiser in June, a baseball cap-wearing John Taggart behaved like any other happy child. On sight alone, it likely would have been difficult for anyone who did not know the boy to have realized he was a cancer patient. His father said that to the end, the cancer did not seem to affect John’s personality.

“His mind, I would say, was always there,” Kelly Taggart said. “He would still smile. He would still want to hold his favorite little sister, Lindsey, on the couch.”

The Taggart family plans to hold a memorial service for John Nov. 5 at Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills. Kelly Taggart said the family will also remember John by participating in future Alex’s Lemonade Stand fundraisers and by supporting the Children’s Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation.

In lieu of flowers, Kelly Taggart requested donations be provided to the foundation.

John Taggart is survived by his parents and siblings: Hayley, 7; Luke, 2; and twins Cal and Lindsey, both 6 months old.