MONTREAL – Chloe Jade Byer has spent nearly half of her life in hospital. The six month old is currently battling brain cancer and has completed two out of six rounds of aggressive chemotherapy.
Her parents have been by her side constantly and the lack of sleep is starting to take its toll.
“We need support from people – emotional – be it any type of support,” said Chloe’s father Robert Byer.
Chloe’s parents first spoke out about their ordeal to Global News last week, and are deeply touched by the support they’ve received on Chloe’s crowd-funding site and from perfect strangers.
“Everybody is really praying for us and saying ‘you will win this battle, stay strong!'” said Chloe’s mother Cristina Carrier. “Strangers are saying that, which is amazing.”
The Byer family isn’t alone. Every year, hundreds of families across the province are forced to deal with the devastating diagnosis of pediatric cancer.
“The worst thing that could happen to a parent is to hear that his child has cancer,” said Marie-Josée Auger, family counsellor for Leucan.
“There’s the shock at the beginning that’s for sure.”
The organization support the families of children dealing with cancer. Leucan is funded mostly by Centraide and is present in every pediatric-oncology ward across Quebec. Auger sees first-hand how the disease can destroy the family unit, both financially and emotionally.
“The Byer family is a good example. Their son stays home with the grandparents, the dad is always here with the mom and they’re not working, so the financial needs are there,” said Auger. “It’s like that for a lot of families.”
Leucan offers financial assistance to parents thanks to its numerous fundraisers. It also hosts weekend retreats to try help families re-fuel, but it’s clearly an uphill battle.
An old high school friend of Chloe’s father saw the story last week and felt compelled to help. He hasn’t seen Byer in decades but couldn’t imagine being in his shoes.
“I’m a single dad. I raise three kids alone and I can’t imagine,” said musician Mitch Kastner, who’s organizing a benefit concert for Chloe at the Pionnier in Pointe-Claire. A long list of local bands have already agreed to donate their time, including The Hi-Fins, Nasty Habits, After Dark, East of Sunday, Just Cuz and Kastner’s band Less Than 4.
The goal is to donate all the proceeds to Chloe’s cancer fund.
“I can’t imagine, on top of the nightmare of having your child sick, to have to not be able to focus 100 per cent on your child and have to have all that additional stress,” said Kastner.
“I don’t know how I’d be able to deal with that.”
Chloe’s parents know the road to recovery will be the toughest battle of their lives. But the outpouring of support from the community is making their journey a little less painful.
“The warmth, the compassion that I knew and believed was out there in the public is coming through loud and clear,” said Byer. “It’s driving us forward”
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