Beads of Courage program encouraging sick kids and their families

Naomi Lendvay wore ten strands of colourful beads around her neck as she prepared to take part in the Beads of Courage Colour Festival Fun Run in Saskatoon.

The hundreds of beads reveal the eight-year-old’s cancer journey.

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“That was June 25th, 2015. Our world stopped,” Naomi’s mom, Vanessa Lendvay said.

“My husband found the lump. It was the size of a hotdog from what he could find,” Vanessa said.

“That little hotdog lump turned out to be a 17 centimetre mass growing out of her pelvis.”

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After that, every needle poke and surgery would be strung together by Naomi’s Beads of Courage.

The program gives beads to children coping with serious illness, allowing them to record and tell their story through beads.

“For every treatment they go through they get a specific bead that represents that treatment procedure,” said Victoria Plouffe with Beads of Courage Canada.

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The program works with 75,000 kids, across 400 hospitals, worldwide. The fun run raises funds to support the Beads of Courage program across Saskatchewan.

“In the end, it’s a very tangible way to show and tell everything they’ve been through,” Plouffe said.

“My white ones are from how many chemos I’ve gotten and I’ve gotten 185,” Naomi said while reflecting on her 600 beads.

When asked what her favourite bead is, Naomi says it’s the yellow stars.

“They mean the worst, but they look the best,” Naomi said.

The yellow stars represent surgery and Naomi has two of them.

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Finally, after collecting dozens of beads, the Lendvay family learned this week that the collecting is coming to a close.

“Friday we met with the radiologist and her oncologist and they said it (the cancer) was gone,” Vanessa said.

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Now that Naomi is now cancer free, her mom said the family can “finally breathe.”

“In our darkness, it was some colour in our darkness. It’s a phenomenal program,” Vanessa said.

Naomi, who was the ambassador of the event, was joined by 350 people on Sunday for the fifth annual fun run.