Brooklyn was born on April 4th, 2008, a healthy, beautiful, happy baby for parents Brad and Amanda. She was always loving, respectful and full of life growing up. She enjoyed school, loved exploring new things and was always making new friends. She truly was the perfect child, one everyone loved.
On September 9th, 2017, one week into the new school year, a large lump was found in Brooklyn’s left forearm. It wasn’t in a noticeable spot and it wasn’t bothering Brooklyn or causing her any pain. Her parents gave her some Benadryl, not knowing if it was a spider bite or perhaps an allergic reaction. The next day it had not changed, so her family made a trip to the local hospital’s emergency department. They immediately did x-rays and an ultrasound.
“We had our fingers crossed it was just a lump that would not be worrisome,” recalls Amanda, but fate was not on their side. “On September 18th, we found ourselves in London where tests began.” On October 25th, Brooklyn was diagnosed with Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very aggressive rare cancer, in her arm and a spot in her lung.
In the following days and weeks, Brooklyn went through numerous tests and surgeries and began a 40-week chemo regimen on November 20th. She spent her 10th birthday undergoing a 16+ hour surgery at Sick Kids in Toronto. During this surgery, most of her forearm was removed and rebuilt using other parts of her body. The surgery was successful with all margins clear of cancer.
“She always seemed to breeze through everything with no complaining and a smile on her face,” her mom remembers. “She shocked nurses and doctors wherever she went.” Chemo still gave Brooklyn many side effects, including nausea and stomach cramps, and she spent many nights sitting in a bath of warm water to ease the leg pains.
Yet Brooklyn erased those moments from her mind to carry on as normally as she could. She still attended school as much as possible and her family still did things together. “When Brooklyn would finish her daily chemo or radiation, we would always make a point of doing something that didn’t include the hospital,” explains Amanda. “Even with all the physiotherapy that she had to endure, which was very painful, Brooklyn would leave the hospital and not look back.”
Brooklyn made it through 38 weeks of her 40-week chemo schedule without missing a single treatment. Unfortunately, it was then that she relapsed; the cancer had returned to her arm. She endured more surgery, 28 radiation treatments and another 30 chemo treatments until, on February 1st, 2019, she finally completed her chemo and radiation cycles. Maintenance chemo would now begin.
Her family felt that they could all, finally, breathe a sigh of relief. Scans of Brooklyn’s chest and arm were good and she had made it through both cycles of chemo and her cycle of radiation with no fever admissions and without needing a blood transfusion.
In April, 2019, Brooklyn and her family went on Brooklyn’s wish trip to Disney. While there, she began to experience some headaches. Back at home, the headaches worsened. Brad and Amanda took her to get her eyes tested thinking that maybe her eyesight had been affected by the chemo. The pressure found behind her eyes was off the charts. With Brooklyn’s history, her reports were immediately sent to London, and back to London went Brooklyn and her family. An MRI showed that Brooklyn now had a tumour on her brain.
On May 1st, surgeons removed as much of the tumour as they safely could.
“The pain from this surgery was pretty intense,” Amanda recalls. “It was awful to see, and she just kept asking ‘when can we go home’ with tears running down her cheeks.”
After the surgery and time to heal, the plan was to do radiation to stop the growth of any remaining cancer cells. Unfortunately, the cancer had plans of its own. Within six weeks, the tumour had grown back to its original size and now a CT scan of Brooklyn’s chest was showing additional cancer growth.
“The doctors were without words, to have it grow back that quickly,” says Amanda. “At this point, we knew that the cancer was beating the treatment.”
Further scans showed that it was now in Brooklyn’s pancreas, and tumours in her arm and thigh were visible. Still, Brooklyn went to school as much as she could and continued to interact with her friends. Her parents kept life going as normally as possible, even taking a last minute trip to Mexico, Brooklyn’s favourite vacation spot.
On July 16th, Brooklyn was to start a five-day radiation schedule to shrink the tumour and relieve some the pressure but, the day before, she began to have seizures. She was sedated and stabilized, and Brooklyn kept fighting. She started her radiation treatment, and after just one treatment, the difference was amazing. “She was able to have a conversation,” Amanda explains, “We were able to play games, build Lego which she did often with her sister to pass time, and do things that we always did while in the hospital.”
One week later, Brooklyn returned home.
Brooklyn was able to enjoy a little bit of summer with no hospital visits. Instead, she went to the beach, to movies and mainly just had fun. But, by the end of July, her breathing was becoming very compromised. Radiation to a small area of her chest was planned in hopes of giving her some relief.
“Even struggling to breathe, she still fought to do things with her friends and her siblings,” Amanda remembers. “August 12th, the day before she was to start her radiation, she started to fall into psychosis. When Brooklyn passed away on August 15th, 2019, a true angel was taken from us."
Brad and Amanda are truly grateful for the help Childcan provided. “Throughout Brooklyn’s two-year journey, Childcan has always been there for us,” says Amanda. “I could not imagine the extra financial and emotional burden there would have been if they weren’t. Covering our hospital parking on a daily basis whether it was Toronto or London, which would have been a financial burden for us. Showing up with a bag of goodies for Brooklyn to put a smile on her face, which was priceless. Providing food vouchers in a time of absolute need. Helping a mom who forgot essentials for their child who is slowly slipping away. And the support during and after losing a child and sibling has been phenomenal. I am forever grateful for Renee and Childcan; I just hope someday I can pay it forward.”