HOUSTON -- A caring Houston doctor is helping a grandmother and her grandson after the boy was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

Joshua Jones, 7, is in a wheelchair because he is too sick and weak to get around.

A brain tumor has left him blind in one eye. His other eye only has partial vision and his hearing is deteriorating as well.

Joshua is in the middle of chemotherapy treatments.

His grandmother has lived at the Ronald McDonald House since February because it was the easiest way to deal with the daily doctor visits to the Texas Medical Center.

"We pray every night, and we just hope and pray that tomorrow is going to be a better day," said Peggy Jones, Joshua's grandmother.

Joshua's mother died in a car accident when he was 4 years old. He has not seen his father in years.

Peggy Jones is Joshua's legal guardian. She vowed to never give up.

"Losing my daughter is the hardest thing anybody could ever imagine. It's like a piece of your heart. Sometimes you don't want to live, but Josh pulled me out of it. He's the love of my life," she said.

Jones cherishes every moment with her grandson.

She took a leave of absence from her job at Wal-Mart and is struggling to make ends meet.

But she finally knows what is wrong with Joshua.

"I took him back and fourth to the doctor and they said he had a crick neck. Every time I would go in, he was throwing up vomiting, had headaches. The symptoms were there," she said.

For three months, Jones took Joshua to doctors looking for a diagnosis and cure.

His vision was also deteriorating.

"When he would drop something, he would feel and grab it or he would feel his way down the hall, and I knew. I said, 'Something is wrong,'" Jones said.

It wasn't until Joshua saw optometrist Dr. Patricia Galos that her hunch became reality.

When I looked in the back of his eye, it was very shocking. I knew he needed help immediately," Galos said. "If you look at the picture of Joshua's eye, you can notice that it's hard to distinguish there's an optic disc there. There's hemorrhages coming out -- that's the red lines. The vessels, instead of being straight, are tortuous, crooked and the optic disc completely obliterated."

Joshua was diagnosed with optic disc edema, a rapidly-growing brain tumor.

"The type of tumor he has is the most common primary central nervous system tumor and it almost is exclusively in children. It's about 10 to 30 percent of all childhood brain tumors," Galos said.

Joshua will never regain his sight. But the fight is on for him to beat the disease.

Galos is raising money to help pay the medical bills while Jones is not working.

"I was just trying to help my patient. I think all doctors can be a little bit compassionate about patients. I know we see a lot of people. Things are routine. Sometimes something comes along and it really touches you. You realize the family needs help, the child needs help and they need a little bit extra special attention," Galos said.

Galos visits them every week and follows Joshua's progress.

Even though the boy is weak, he is also a pillar of strength.

"When I see that smile in the mornings and he looks at me and tells me, 'Nana, it's going to be OK. Don't cry. It's going to be OK,'" Jones said.

Galos found a family whose son passed away of a similar tumor. They raise money for families and agreed to help Joshua.

To donate or for more information, visit http://timmysfund.org.