Winter 2013 - Kiwanis Pacific Northwest District

changing the lives of children with cancer
Thank you, Kiwanians!
Kiwanis Clubs of British Columbia/
Yukon along with the Kiwanis family
and the Kiwanis Foundation of Canada
are having an impact on the lives of
children living with cancer by
contributing to the Kiwanis Children’s
Cancer Program (KCCP) to support the
oncology fellowship program at
BC Children’s Hospital. These funds
benefit kids with cancer by supporting
the leading medical researchers and
clinicians who are working together
to provide the best care possible for the
region’s youngest patients and their
families.
Treating Kids with Cancer
In BC, about 130 children are diagnosed
with cancer every year. All of them are
treated at BC Children’s Hospital.
Children and adolescents with cancer
are not simply little adults with cancer.
Children’s cancers look and grow
differently from adult cancers, and they
don’t respond the same way to
treatment. Conventional therapies are
hard on children’s smaller bodies and
can permanently affect their growth
and development.
Thanks to advances in research, clinical
care and treatment, Health Canada
reports that survival rates for childhood
cancer today exceed 80%, a major
increase from just 10% 40 years ago.
6 PNW Builder | Winter 2013
It is through fellowship funding
programs like the KCCP., which funds
medical doctors and researchers who
are working to find innovative new
treatments and a cure for cancer, that
BC Children’s Hospital can recruit the
talented health professionals needed to
continue to save even more lives of
children with the disease.
Who Are You Helping?
It’s hard to imagine that infants can
develop cancer. Unfortunately, Daisy
Irwin did.
At only 10 weeks old, Daisy was
diagnosed with a rare combination of
two different types of acute leukemia.
With this notoriously difficult cancer to
treat, Daisy arrived at BC Children’s
Hospital to begin chemotherapy
immediately after diagnosis. The
treatment was incredibly hard on her
body, and she spent an entire month on
a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit
following her first round of
chemotherapy.
At only six months old, she received a
desperately needed bone marrow
transplant. Although the transplant was
Daisy’s only chance at life, it also was
the cause of a dangerous transplant
complication called acute graft-versushost
disease, in which the immune
system does not accept the transplant
and instead attacks it.
The Irwin family spent eight months
away from home, living at BC
Children’s Hospital and trying their
best to be there, not only for Daisy, but
also for her two-year-old sister, Molly.
The worst days seemed to be those
when Daisy was in isolation and Molly
had to stay away from the hospital
because of a cold.
A real fighter, Daisy gave it
everything she had to stay
alive, and that she did. Now
seven years old, her
prognosis is good for a
bright future.
Cancer Care and
Research at
BC Children’s Hospital
BC Children’s Hospital’s survival and
cure rates for children with cancer rank
among the best in North America.
That’s because, through the benefit of
having childhood cancer specialists
working side-by-side in the clinic and
in the laboratory, doctors and scientists
are able to bring the newest, and safest,
treatments to children’s bedsides as
soon as they become available. And
BC Children’s Hospital can recruit the
people who are making it all happen
with the help of fellowship funding to
attract the medical leaders who are
working to save the lives of children
every day.
The Oncology/Hematology/Bone
Marrow Transplant Clinics at BC
Children’s Hospital have close to 10,000
visits from children each year. Bone
marrow transplantation is a key
treatment for blood-related cancers like
leukemia. Last year, 23 children had
bone marrow transplants at BC
Children’s Hospital. But in a quarter of
the children who receive donated bone
marrow, like Daisy, the donor immune
cells attack the recipient’s tissues,
causing a debilitating and potentially
fatal illness called graft-versus-host
disease, or GVHD. Cancer researchers
on the BC Children’s Hospital campus
are studying GVHD and making
discoveries that have the potential to
advance treatments and save more lives
than ever before.
Congratulations to the
Vernon Four Seasons Kiwanis Club
for raising $50,000 for K.C.C.P.