Raising funds for brain cancer: Kaiden’s story

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Cooped up in a hospital room with chemotherapy dripping into his veins was not the childhood Ashley and Eric had envisioned for their two-year-old son Kaiden. Five months ago, during a visit to Montreal, the youngster resembled most other children his age. Kaiden was his energetic, playful self, until he suddenly expressed flu-like symptoms; ones his small body wasn’t able to shake. Without any other indications of the flu accompanying his ongoing vomiting, his small deteriorating body caused his parents to take action and rush him to the hospital.
Following a CT scan and MRI, Ashley and Eric were informed that a five-cm-long tumour was pressing on Kaiden’s cerebellum and the likelihood was it had spread to his spine.
“It was probably the longest week ever, and that was rock bottom right there,” said Erik Dressler. “At least it was operable and it gave us a chance and it wasn’t terminal. But at the time we didn’t know and we thought it was. It’s so rare in kids under five, and the chance of him getting it is ridiculously small.”
Further tests revealed that Kaiden’s brain cancer had indeed spread to his spine. While doctors believed they removed all of the mass in his brain, the five to eight tumours left in his spine required intense chemotherapy treatments, which forced the two-year-old to remain in the Alberta Children’s Hospital for two to three weeks a month. Although the light at the end of the tunnel is near, and Kaiden is done his treatments towards the end of September, Ashley said discussions about possible radiation may be necessary if any of the cancer survives the treatment. Because of his young age, the couple was told radiation could have serious consequences –not being able to graduate from high school and never being able to live on his own – and was not ideal.
“He’s done really well and they say children just handle it sometimes better than adults, they just kind of go with it,” said Ashley Dressler. “It’s a different life than you expected. Now our weeks, instead of doing little fun things with his friends, I’m having to go to the hospital three times a week.”
Even though cancer was absent on both sides of the family, the impact Kaiden’s illness had on the family, sparked ambitions to raise money and awareness for early detection and research.
During her efforts to raise funds and spread the word about a brain cancer fundraising event she’s organizing for the family, Kelley Akister, Kaiden’s great aunt, was met with disappointment when she received little feedback.
“I’m just trying to get the word out there, and my husband and I have donated throughout the community and to not get a good response is kind of breaking my heart; maybe because it’s so close to home,” said Akister. “I was hoping to get more support from the Strathmore people and I know times are tough right now, but they can’t be tougher than that. But I’ll keep going. I’m going to Langdon and the rest of Strathmore.”
Friends and family members are pitching in to help meet the $100,000 goal, and Akister has already received help through donations for the silent auction in the form of baskets, quilts, shirts, and hockey tickets.
While her hope is for some of the contributions to help out the family, Eric seemed adamant for most of money to be donated to the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.
“Before this happened I’ve never been this close to it, and you always think of cancer as this thing that doesn’t really affect you,… but for it to happen to you, you look at it differently,” said Eric.
“No matter what, this is now a part of us now. This will always affect us, so we’re always going to be involved in raising money and awareness.”
The silent auction will be held at the Cheadle Hall on Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. For more information on how to get involved contact Kelley Akister at 403-934-7408.