Banding together to support Alyvia

Winnipeg

September was Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. To commemorate, local radio station QX104 hosted its annual ‘Slo-Pitch 4 A Wish’ event, in support of Make-A-Wish Canada, on Sept. 6. The event raised over $70,000, which will go towards granting ‘wishes’ for children battling high-risk medical conditions.

One of the teams on this year’s roster was ‘Alyvia’s Aces,’ which were gathered in support of Alyvia Blackwell, an eight-year-old Winnipegger who was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was two.

“You know, she was a normal two- year-old, running around,” said Dustin Blackwell, Alyvia’s father. “‘Slow down. You’re gonna fall,’ or ‘don’t stand on the couch!’ But then, just after she turned two, we started to notice a regression in her motor skills.”

It started with caution — holding onto the wall, or needing someone to support her as she moved around — so the parents suspected an issue related to vision, but more visits to the hospital meant more urgency and eventually an MRI — which located a tumour on the front of her brain, pressing into her optic nerves.

“It went from being, at the time of diagnosis, (as big as) a ping pong ball — and this is in a two-year-old, keep in mind — and by the time she got on her medication it was almost as big, or bigger than a Christmas orange,” Blackwell said.

The family spent four months in the hospital, while also taking care of and communicating with Alyvia’s older sister, he said. It wasn’t safe to operate or use radiation, but things started to trend upwards after she was introduced to a new medication as an alternative.

“It was still in trial phases, and they don’t often give it to a two-year-old,” Blackwell said, adding that the medication was given to her through compassionate use, as it was either that or death, at that point.

“It’s a gut punch, really, and you don’t know what to do,” he continued. “All you have to do is trust in the medical system, because there’s nothing, as a parent, I could do for her.

“You plan to lose your parents because they’re older than you, but you don’t plan to lose your kids because they’re younger than you, right? So there’s a lot of feelings you have to work through. It actually gets harder now, sometimes, to talk about it.”

The new medication shrunk the tumour considerably — it’s still there to this day, however — and after a four month stay and considering the end, Blackwell said, Alyvia was out within the week.

Alyvia qualified for a wish in January of 2023 — the month of her sixth birthday — and was able to pack her bags and head to Florida for a theme park vacation the following year.

Blackwell became emotional speaking about the generosity from complete strangers: “How people are selfless when it comes to donating their time and (energy) … Because the trip itself … leading up to the trip and the excitement, it really helped.”

“I used to say, before all this, that everything happens for a reason,” he said. “And that’s not a very good saying, because then why would people be sick? Why would kids get brain tumours? Like there’s no reason that should happen … but it’s more like, there’s something good that comes from everything.”

Alyvia’s Aces were able to raise over $5,000 at the slo-pitch event, which is about half of what a Make-a-Wish wish costs.

To donate to Make-a-Wish or hear about new ways to fundraise — such as events like this one — visit makeawish.ca