A simple cup of hot chocolate can help make a dream come true for a young Winnipegger who has spent much of this year in and out of surgery.
Sarah Brooker’s 15-year-old son Travis was diagnosed with juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma — a benign tumour at the back of the nasal cavity that’s since attached itself to his brain and facial tissue — in February.
“It’s been quite a journey to say the least,” Booker told 680 CJOB over the phone from the children’s hospital Thursday, where Travis was undergoing his eighth surgery this year.
“There’s days that are frustrating and upsetting and he would rather just be at home — obviously as most teenagers would want to be.”
“But he is a true warrior.”
While Travis undergoes what the family hopes will be the last of his surgeries, the Dream Factory is working to make one of his dreams come true and give the teenager a brand new bedroom.
A local coffee shop and other local businesses are joining forces to help pay for the extensive renovations.
This month Park Line Coffee in South Osborne is selling a special hot chocolate, with $2 from every purchase going to the cause.
Dubbed “the Warrior Hot Chocolate” in Travis’ honour, this is not at all, in any imaginable way, your average, everyday hot beverage.
The Warrior consists of Callebaut cocoa, toasted marshmallow syrup, steamed milk (or alternative) and is topped with graham crackers — as suggested by Travis himself — and a homemade marshmallow from local confectionary, What the Fluff Mallow Co.
And to make the deal even sweeter, a number of local businesses have offered to match every donation up to $1,000.
“He’s going to get a pretty rocking bedroom,” Brooker says of the effort.
“The basement is never going to look so good after all this outpour of love — he’s going to have everything he’s ever wanted — and it’s going to be everything he deserves.”
“The outpour of love just helps Travis and I stay as positive as we possibly can.”
The decadent Warrior Hot Chocolate is available now for takeout for $4.95 at Park Line Coffee at 685 Osborne Street.
Formerly known as The Rainbow Society, the Dream Factory is a Manitoba-based non-profit that works with people and businesses to help fulfill the dreams of children battling life-threatening illnesses.
Since its founding in 1983, the Dream Factory has helped nearly 800 families in Manitoba, according to its website.
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