Child's Name: Adam

Family:
Parents: Sarah & Dave
Siblings: Jacob (aka – JP) best brother in the world
Grandparents: Sandy & Malcolm / Wilda & Bob

Birthday: April 10th

Story:
Adam was first diagnosed on Nov.6, 2006. Adam was 15 years old and actively involved with sports, hockey being the number 1 thing in his life. Adam had just had a lump removed from his left hand the size of a golf ball and they thought that this was just a cyst that occurred from a hockey injury never the less they sent it to pathology and it came back cancerous……….YIKES.

Little did we realize what a roller coaster ride the next year would be? The type of cancer that he was diagnosed with was called Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma (muscle cancer).
During the course of the year, Adam received 42 rounds of chemotherapy, 25 radiation treatments, and a partial amputation of his left hand. He has always carried a smile on his face and made each and every nurse laugh as well as smile. The one thing that I can truly say about Adam is that he had the greatest attitude throughout his whole journey and the most amazing sense of self and I truly believe that is what has pulled him through.

His grandma Sandy called him her “Gladiator”.

December 29, 2006 was his first chemo and we celebrated his last on Oct.31, 2007.
One thing that we will always hold so close to us is all the amazing kids and families that we met along our journey and the awesome doctors and nurses that we were blessed with. LHSC rocks…

Adam relapsed on January 15th 2009… started his new treatment over in Adult Oncology seeing as he is now 18 yrs. old and is currently undergoing his last 3 chemo treatments and will be beginning his radiation in March 2010 for 5 weeks.

He continues to remain positive & feels that this relapse is just a small road bump & we all feel very positive that we will NOT see his cancer return, ever again.
He will finally graduate from Grade 12 this coming June 2010 and it will truly be a celebration in every sense of the word.

FAVOURITE THINGS
Colour – Purple
Number – 27
Nick/pet names – Parker
Hospital Staff – Dr. Jardine, Sarah Leppington, Nurse Aarc, Nurse Julie, Nurse Trish, Nurse Melinda, Nurse Cathy, Nurse Kelly,
Friends – Matthew, Kurt, Girlfriend: Kirsten, Cale, Julia, Emily, Veronica, Erica, Jacob (brother),
Wish – No more idiots to govern.
Events – Make A Wish, Birthday, Christmas, New Years.
Songs – “All the things she said – by Tatu” – “Crestfallen – by soilwork” – “Heart Failure - by Sixx AM”
Interests – Hockey, Friends, Video Games and Reading.
Books – Legend(s) of Drizzt

Mom & Dads Comments:
We (Sarah & Dave) feel extremely blessed that Adam has managed to remain as positive & upbeat as he has considering he has been through this twice, he always carries a smile on his face & does not want anyone feeling sorry for him. He just wants to enjoy his friends & life and get on with it. We feel extremely blessed and proud to have him as our son. We also want to say a huge thank you to his brother JP for taking the back seat for the last two years to his brother’s illness and for always being by his brothers side, as he does this so unselfishly… we are also very proud of JP.