There is perhaps no worse news for a parent than learning their child has been diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer. But that’s what happened to the parents of Saskatoon’s Casey Shacklock when she was only three years old.
“Its not something you ever think about when you decide to have a family,” said Casey’s mother, Krysta Shacklock, who still remembers how terrified she was when she got the news. “You never expect that your kid will get a diagnosis and now you have to think about: ‘What if they don’t survive?'”
Fortunately, Casey pulled through after years of treatment and, in July, was rewarded for her strength and courage with a trip to Orlando, Fla., courtesy of Make-A-Wish Canada to visit Walt Disney World, where she hoped to meet a Disney princess.
Casey was diagnosed with B-Cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare form of cancer, and endured chemotherapy lasting over 800 days.
She finished her treatment at the end of February 2021 at seven years old. She was declared “healthy” the next June. Now Casey now has plenty of energy to play with her brother, chase after her dog and show off her cat to visiting journalists.
The disease and therapy, however, has left some deep scars.
“Casey now has a 90 per cent chance of developing a different life-threatening disease, including a different cancer, within the next 30 years. That is because of the side effects of the therapy,” Krysta Shacklock said.
Casey herself did not seem bothered by that prospect and continued being her happy-go-lucky self during a visit with Global News.
Make-A-Wish Canada selected the Shacklocks to join more than 40 families from across Canada to fly to Orlando on Westjet’s Disney Magic plane. Casey described the plane as having extra sparkles.
The families lived for a week in the Give Kids The World Village, a resort specifically for families with special medical needs. From there, the families were able to visit the various theme parks and aquariums in the Orlando area.
One of the highlights for Casey was her visit to the Disney Bibbity Bobbity Boo Boutique where she dressed up as Princess Aurora from Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty.” Aurora is not her favourite princess—Casey did not offer details—but once she was all dressed up she met Princess Cinderella, fulfilling one of her wishes.
Meeting Cinderella was great, but Casey’s happiest moments involved rollercoasters. She went on the Avatar ride three times at Disney World. Her favourite moment, however, was riding the Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster at Universal Studios with her dad.
Krysta Shacklock said it was the most amazing trip she ever had.
“We are so grateful for this trip. To have all your needs taken care of and not have to worry about anything is such a relief. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They thought of absolutely everything. There even was entertainment for the kids in the Toronto airport lounge. They arranged rental cars. I could not have planned a trip better myself.”
The large group made the trip even better for the parents. Krysta Shacklock said it made her feel less alone.
“Before this trip, we did not know any families whose child had cancer. Then we met all these families, all with some sort of medical complexity. And they just get it. They understand what it’s like to spend a lot of time in the hospital. They understand medication and the challenges that go with that,” Krysta Shacklock said. She is keeping in touch with a lot of the people she met during the trip.
The Shacklock’s trip marks the first time Make-A-Wish Canada has organized a group trip. The charity is celebrating its 40th anniversary and had planned to invite 40 families to Disney World. CEO Meaghan Stovel said they ended up inviting 44, making it the largest trip the charity has ever organized.
“We are so happy we managed to pull it off. We had a backlog due to Covid-19. It was too dangerous for a lot of our kids to travel during the pandemic. We decided to grant a lot of the Disney World visit wishes at the same time,” McKnight said. Due to the backlog about half of the wishes are kids who want to visit Disney World.
The success has enticed Make-A-Wish to do more trips like it. They already plan to fulfill more large group wishes. They says there are currently about 4,000 children waiting to have their wishes fulfilled.