Seven-week-old Emmett Smith is battling a rare form of liver cancer.

As the Whitehorse baby undergoes 18 weeks of chemotherapy at Vancouver General Hospital, friends and family here and in his parents’ home communities – Carcross and Fort McPherson, N.W.T. – are rallying to support him.

An online fund-raising campaign has been set up, with $5,000 pouring in over the last three days. The goal is $10,000, to cover any medical or financial needs the family has.

Emmett is the youngest of four children to Michael Smith and Charlotte Francis.

His parents took him to the hospital at the beginning of the month when they noticed his stomach was hard.

After a medevac to Vancouver and further testing, doctors identified a tumour and diagnosed the baby with hepatoblastoma.

Emmett’s chemotherapy treatments have already begun, and his uncle, Donnie Smith, said surgery will follow.

“We’re pulling together for Charlotte and Michael,” Donnie told the Star Friday afternoon from his home in Carcross.

“Neither one of them is going to be able to work while the baby is going through this, so we thought we’d get together and do something to help them out with any of the financial difficulties that they’re going to be facing.”

Emmett’s siblings, two brothers and a sister all under the age of seven, know something’s going on.

“They might be a little young to understand, but they have been asking where Emmett is,” Donnie said.

Right now, two of the three siblings are staying with an uncle in Whitehorse, while Michael and Francis took their two-year-old down to Vancouver with them.

Donnie said the family is grateful for the support from Francis’ hometown of Fort McPherson and his and Michael’s community, the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

“On behalf of Michael and Charlotte and the family, thank you to all those that have helped so far, that have donated and contributed in other ways,” he said.

To donate, visit the online fund-raising page at www.gofundme.com/jwf13o.