For Baby Alice and all of the little children still battling, please join the fight during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (yes, that’s September)
I will never have the pleasure of meeting one of my personal heroes. She was only 2 years old when she passed but, the thing is, you didn’t need to meet “Baby Alice” Wolter in person to know what a force of nature she was. Her vibrant spirit shone out of her tiny, piercing, eyes and a world of joy could not just be ‘heard’ but FELT through one powerful giggle. Joyful noise she made while she was here and an indelible impression on the whole world she left when she was taken from it far too soon.
Alice’s mom, Korinna, is the daughter of my parents’ life-long friends Steve & Sharon Kinnaird and it was with broken hearts that we all watched helplessly from across Canada as her family’s personal nightmare began last September and continued to unfold…
Baby Alice was diagnosed exactly 12 months ago, September 6th, 2017, “We were flown in from Salmon Arm Hospital to Vancouver Children’s Hospital, and we were later told she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia,” said Korinna. The family was informed that chemotherapy was not an option and they had to go straight to bone marrow transplants. Alice’s superhero big brother, Anthony (pictured above left), was the donor for her first which failed after 60 days and then a stem cell transplant (with her lovely brother as the donor once again) landed her in the ICU twice but she pulled through and was declared 100% cancer-free only to relapse after 30 days.
In April about 250 people came together to help Alice celebrate her dream birthday “In Wonderland” but the magic will have to continue on without her in the physical world as this little angel earned her wings just a couple of months later on June 13th.
Her family misses her every minute and they are far from alone. Each year ~1500 families in Canada have a child diagnosed with cancer. While success rates for treatments continue to climb – these stats are not rising fast enough for many children.
My guest this afternoon on the QX104CoffeeBreak is Lisa Porter, Professor, University of Windsor and Research Director, Windsor Cancer Research Group.
Lisa says, “September is a time when we all post photos and highlights of our kids hitting their latest milestones in school – it’s a time of excitement and new challenges. But for many it’s a reminder of what they are missing.” Click here to listen to Lisa’s interview on QX104
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and you can follow Lisa on Facebook if you’d like to learn more and communicate with an expert in the field of Cancer Research, “I will be posting points all month from my Porter Lab site – please let us know if you want to join the group!” she says.
Donate, raise awareness, do something kind for a struggling family.