For the White family, their daughter Maddie coming home safe and well after overcoming bone cancer was the perfect Christmas gift.
Back in Powell River and celebrating a well-deserved welcome home with her family at Carlson Community Club on Thursday, December 17, it has been a difficult journey for Madison White, 13, known to family and friends as Maddie.
Diagnosed with advanced acute myelogenous leukaemia in March after a brain bleed caused her to fall into a coma, White has spent the last 10 months in Vancouver getting treatment at BC Children’s Hospital.
“It was tough at the beginning,” said her mother Jamie Summers, “she almost died.”
After overcoming a second stroke and undergoing chemotherapy and two operations, Maddie started recovering after receiving a healing bone marrow transplant from her nine-year-old brother Tyson.
“Tyson was a 10 out of 10 perfect match,” said grandmother Heather White. “The hospital said they only see that two to three times a year.”
Running to and fro with siblings and friends at Maddie’s welcome home party, Tyson appeared to be unfazed by his role in his sister’s recovery.
“He’s still the same bundle of energy,” said Heather. “We were so lucky.”
Luck, however, was just one small component of Maddie’s recovery, according to her aunt April White.
“People in the community like Sherri Wiebe and staff at Willingdon Creek Village held fundraisers. Her uncle Christopher MacGregor even set up a healing prayers Facebook page,” said April.
A crowdfunding site set up by Maddie’s great aunt Susan Blanchard was soon taken down after Blanchard’s granddaughter, named for Maddie, passed away at 10 days old, but almost $10,000 was raised through beer and burger nights and 50/50 draws alone.
“It is just too much,” said April of the family loss. “But we are ecstatic to see Maddie recover. This is the best Christmas present, just to see her doing really good and seeing how healthy she has become.”
Once an active and healthy girl crowned with a head of long, blonde hair, Maddie is on her way to becoming her old self again, said April.
“She is bouncing back and you can see her personality returning,” she said. “After two strokes, that is really lucky.”
For father Jason White, Maddie’s recovery is a dream come true as much as it is a relief.
“It has been a long year,” said Jason. “I was in Vancouver almost the whole time and I have eight kids, so we were all broken up and apart. Now we are all together again and I can breathe a sigh of relief.”
At first the whole family, including grandparents, travelled down to Vancouver to be with Maddie, dividing their time between Ronald McDonald and Easter Seals houses.
“I run my own business and had to shut everything down to be with Maddie,” said Jason, “so I was really grateful for all the community’s help. It means so much.”
Jason said the money raised has gone a long way towards helping the family with travel costs, as well as providing Maddie with tools such as a Nintendo Wii to help her with her physiotherapy.
“She reads a lot and uses the Wii for physio, as well as seeing a physiotherapist,” said Jason. “It is great to see her bouncing back and settling into a routine.”
According to her grandmother Heather, after the bone marrow transplant in November, Maddie had to be isolated from all visitors except her mom and dad.
“Your family is sick and you can’t be there; it is like a piece of your heart is missing,” said Heather. “Now I feel whole again.”
Stepmother Jessica White said Maddie has plans to get a turquoise wig and is currently enjoying being out of the hospital and being a teenage girl again.
“The day she first fell into a coma we had a hair appointment to get her hair dyed turquoise,” said Jessica. “Now her hair is growing back and she picked out a pink dress and got all made up for the party. She was such a tomboy and now it is nice to see her just having fun being a teenage girl.”
For Amanda Ford, who took the family under her wing for the holidays and helped arrange Christmas celebrations, seeing them all reunited is quite a treat.
“It has been a long time coming for this brave little girl,” said Ford. “It’s amazing to see her recover.”
Still frail and weak after her cancer battle, Maddie uses a wheelchair and walker to aid mobility. She walked into her welcome-back party under her own power and to the tune of her favourite music, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song.”
Wearing a Batman toque and a pink dress, Maddie was happily content to sit with her family, hugging her three-year-old sister Heather close.
“Thank you to everyone,” she said. “Right now I am so glad to be back and am looking forward to sleepovers and hanging out with friends.”
Now 100 per cent cancer-free, Maddie has even more to look forward to in the new year as her and her mother Jamie and grandmother Heather have a trip to London ahead of them, courtesy of the Make a Wish Foundation.
“It just had to be London,” said Heather. “We are all going to have a really good time and celebrate her recovery.”
In the meantime, all 30-plus members and friends of the extended White family will be gathered together this Christmas to celebrate at Cranberry Community Hall.
“There are too many of us to fit in any one house,” she Heather. “We are really lucky we are not one less this year.”
