BC Children's Hospital Foundation

Our Story

On December 2, 2016 my wife and I read the most frightening words of our lives: Suprasellar Malignant Germ Cell Tumor.  It was a diagnosis for our nine-year-old son Braden. In layman’s terms, cancerous brain tumor. As parents, this was our worst nightmare; for Braden it was terrifying.                     

What had started with Braden complaining about not being able to see properly, quickly turned into a complex medical journey that continues to this day. Thankfully, Braden is still with us and getting stronger every day.  

Throughout this ordeal what has given us courage and strength more than anything is the outstanding team of people that work at BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH). Their professionalism, care, and compassion cannot be commended enough. When it came to Braden’s diagnosis, they left us confident that they had left no stone unturned. We are eternally grateful to every person who helped to save Braden’s life and cared for him so well.   

For our family, thank you simply does not seem like enough; and perhaps nothing will ever feel like enough. How do you repay people for saving your son’s life? His life, as with all children, is priceless. The only thing we can do is give back to BCCH so they can continue to save the lives of children and provide important medical care to our kids. With every dollar raised you are not only helping countless children, but also helping us say thank you again and again. 

Donations of any amount are all appreciated. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting BCCH; it means the world to us!

Brad Leaney and Family

THE DIAGNOSIS

In November 2016, just six weeks after his ninth birthday, Braden started to experience dizzy spells and headaches. He told his mom and me that he could not recognize kids’ faces at the opposite end of the gymnasium. Since both his mom and sister wear glasses, we thought he must need them too. When we took Braden for an eye exam, the optometrist was horrified how much Braden's eyesight had deteriorated since his last exam. He was so concerned he advised us to take Braden to BC Children's Hospital immediately.

We followed his advice and within an hour of arriving at the hospital they had done a CT scan and advised us that our son had a brain tumor. Because we had discovered it early, the they were optimistic; the tumor was relatively small. I suppose however, that depends on how you define small, as it turned out to be the size of a golf ball! It was difficult to comprehend; Braden didn’t appear sick.

The team at BCCH move incredibly fast. They understand that time is of the essence when it comes to diagnosis and treatment, so they are sure not to waste any. Their early plan was to remove the tumor and they had already started to gather a surgical team. However, after more tests which revealed that Braden had no peripheral vision and that the tumor had damaged is pituitary gland, the oncologists decided it was best to shrink the tumor before trying to remove it.

Initially the doctors thought Braden had a non-cancerous germ cell tumour, but it turns out they were wrong. When they discovered it was cancerous, they immediately installed a chemotherapy port in his chest and gathered a sample of spinal fluid. Thankfully, there were no cancer cells present in his spinal fluid, so now it was time to set his course of treatment. 

Doctors from BCCH as well as ones in Seattle and Toronto helped develop his treatment plan. Braden's treatment would include six cycles of chemotherapy with each one lasting three weeks. The doctors would then look at the results to determine if surgery would be required to remove what remained. Afterwards, Braden would require six weeks of radiation.

Our sweet, kind-hearted son was terrified. He loves sports, riding his bike and hanging with his friends and it was so tough to see him unable to participate in all the things he enjoys. But despite his fear, he was going to teach us all just how tough he really is.

Help other kids with their fight and donate to the BCCH Foundation.

CHEMOTHERAPY

Braden began chemotherapy at the beginning of December 2016. Chemotherapy is a weird thing; it is meant to save lives, but the nurses arrived in hazmat suits to administer the drugs. It is toxic. All of Braden’s hair quickly fell out. He was overcome by nausea; at one time he was on four different types of anti-nausea medication. He took a bucket with him everywhere he went. During one cycle of chemotherapy, he threw up 70 times! But not once did he miss the bucket! After each dose of chemo, injections to boost white blood cells were necessary for the next seven days. Braden's blood was constantly being tested; sometimes it was three times a day. Blood transfusions were also sometimes required.  At ten years old Braden’s weight was reduced to fifty pounds. 

As always, the staff at BCCH went the extra mile. One night when it snowed the hospital staff went outside and built snowmen for the children to see out their windows when they woke. We were worried Braden might not make it home for Christmas, but he did. It was a difficult journey home as Braden was throwing up blood and the city had not plowed the snow in our cul de sac so we couldn’t get Braden out of the car. I had to contact the city to have them come and plow our street for us; but we were grateful to all be at home together for Christmas. 

Help more kids go home for Christmas and donate to the BCCH Foundation.

 BRAIN SURGERY

 
Chemotherapy was a long, scary, and difficult experience for Braden. It is a necessary treatment to fight cancer, but it is hard on the body. While it targets cancer cells, it can also affect healthy cells like skin, hair, and the intestines. The end of chemotherapy does not mean the end of health challenges, but recovery from it was necessary before the next step in Braden’s battle could be taken, brain surgery.
For all of us it was getting to difficult to figure out what was the scariest thing to hear: cancer; chemotherapy; brain surgery… all terrifying. We had confidence in the medical team treating our son, but it was difficult nonetheless to hear a very young-looking surgeon explain the procedure to us. Braden needed endoscopic pituitary surgery. This is when the surgeon enters the nostrils and with the help of a tiny endoscopic camera and light, taking care to avoid carotid arteries and optical nerves, he uses a long tool to remove the tumor back out the nose. It is minimally invasive surgery, but as parents hearing that they need to make holes in your son’s septum, sinus, and the cradle of his skull that holds his pituitary gland did not sound minimally invasive!
The surgery took seven gruelling hours. Thankfully, everything went as planned. The tumor they removed was the size of a grape and despite first concerns otherwise, it was not attached to his pituitary gland, so they were able to leave the gland in place. In typical BCCH fashion, the entire surgical team came to tell us the surgery went well. Braden had a few days recovery in the hospital before heading home to prepare for the next step in his fight.
Please consider donating to BCCH to help kids like Braden keep fighting.

 Radiation

The cancer treatment journey is a long one, with each step no less difficult than the previous one. Although still exhausted and scared, we were pleased with the outstanding attention and care given to Braden. We trusted the treatment path his healthcare team set Braden on, and Braden was proving to be up for the battle; these things gave us strength.

A few weeks after surgery Braden started radiation. Chemotherapy is a drug intervention designed to kill cancer cells in the body. Radiation targets cancerous tumors directly. When radiation is needed on the head, neck, or brain the patient needs to wear a mask. The mask holds the patients head and neck perfectly still and in the exact correct position during the treatment for accuracy and best results. BCCH does a wonderful job of taking away some of the fear of being bolted to a table, by personalizing radiation masks for the kids. For Braden, the staff decorated his mask in an ocean theme with fish and seaweed. He wore this mask through 30 rounds of radiation. The final treatment was in mid-June 2017.

Post-treatment tests pleased the medical team; Braden’s eyesight had returned. But the journey still was not over.

Please help BCCH continue to give hope to families across BC by donating what you can to Braden’s Fund.