Connor

Connor from Swift Current, SK and his family’s lives completely changed in a matter of days in September 2021, when what looked like a bloated stomach ended up being much worse.

Connor’s grandma is a retired registered nurse, so even though Connor appeared healthy, she had a feeling there was underlying concern. An ultrasound confirmed Connor had a 13 cm mass on his kidney and he was diagnosed with a stage 4 Wilms tumour.

Just eight days later, Connor had a surgery at Saskatchewan’s Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital (JPCH) to remove the tumor. If there wasn’t a dedicated children’s hospital in Saskatchewan, Connor’s family was told they would’ve had to go to Ontario for his life-saving treatment.

“We would have been that much further away from our daughter, so it means everything to our family that we were able to be as close to home as we were,” Connor’s Mom, Briana said.

He recovered quickly, but things took another turn when he started to have paralysis in his legs after returning home. Connor was rushed back to Saskatchewan’s JPCH and his medical team found a second tumor on his T12 vertebrae. There was a 50% chance Connor would regain movement, which Briana said was even more daunting than his initial cancer diagnosis.

With courage and strength, Connor once again recovered. After two major surgeries, 14 days of radiation treatment and 25 weeks of chemotherapy, Connor has officially been in remission for over a year. Connor is now a healthy three-year-old who loves playing, running around and causing trouble, and feeling like a kid again. His family is incredibly grateful to see their goofy boy thrive and grow every day, especially after seeing him go through such a tough and uncertain medical journey.