Fae went to school the day before her family learned she had cancer. Everything seemed so normal, and then…it wasn’t. Her puffy face – like she was having an allergic reaction – and swollen lymph nodes led Fae’s mom, Brett, to take her to urgent care, where bloodwork flagged what was suspected to be leukemia. At the Alberta Children’s Hospital, further testing narrowed down the type of cancer to a specific diagnosis: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). As if this news was not shocking and devastating enough, Fae’s parents Brett and Rob, learned the cancer had filled up lymph nodes through Fae’s neck and around her heart, creating a mass that was compressing her heart, and she needed to be admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
Fae started chemotherapy right away. It worked so well that she developed a condition called tumour lysis syndrome, meaning her kidneys were having a hard time keeping up with filtering the rapid cell breakdown as the chemo killed the cancer, so she needed to be put on dialysis for support. Once Fae was finally stable, her family began to process what lay ahead. While they were relieved to know that her cancer was treatable, the treatment plan was two years and four months long. Brett says they really had to prioritize the present and focus on each day, one at a time.
The first phase of Fae’s treatment – “frontline chemo” – included four rounds of chemotherapy, which Brett describes as “Intense. Nuking the cancer. Hitting it as hard as they can.” The second phase, “long-term maintenance”, begins this month and will carry Fae through to the end of her treatment in August of 2026. Thankfully, they have an amazing team of nurses and doctors in the oncology clinic supporting them every step of the way. Though she lost her hair and had to stop playing hockey, Fae has been an absolute trooper, missing only one day of school because she felt too sick to go, and finding a new sense of purpose in coaching her younger sister’s hockey team. “She never complains, she cracks jokes, she makes the best of it,” says Brett. “She sounds like a 40-year-old therapist when she talks about her feelings.”
A very special support throughout treatment has been the Hospital at Home program, which saved Fae’s family from making many trips to the hospital from their home in Okotoks. Instead, a nurse came to them so Fae could be comfier during treatment and there were fewer disruptions to her family’s schedule. “It has made an undeniable impact in keeping the lives of my family somewhat normal again,” says Brett. “The nurses in the Hospital at Home program are some of the most compassionate and competent people I have come across. It has been a huge weight off our chests to trust that the people coming to care for our child are the best of the best.”
These days, Fae is doing well. She plans to participate in hockey camps this spring and summer and return to the ice with her team in the fall. The family is also looking forward to a wish trip to Disneyland. Despite the difficult road they’ve been walking, Brett is thankful for the many people who have played an important role – from the amazing PICU staff, to their oncologists and the Hospital at Home nurses.
