Toddler fighting cancer
Community rallying around family
Dayla Gallant is not a fan of needles, but the cheerful 14-month-old girl who lives with her Mom, Janelle, and her grandparents, Christine and Kerry in Duvar, has seen more than her share of them.
Dayla Gallant is not a fan of needles, but the cheerful 14-month-old girl who lives with her mom, Janelle, and her grandparents, Christine and Kerry in Duvar, has seen more than her share of them. “She knows what’s up,” says Janelle in describing how her daughter reacts when she sees nurses approaching. “She knows they are going to hurt her.”
What Dayla might not fully appreciate, though, is that the nurses and doctors are doing everything they can to cure her of a nasty childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.
And Dayla is actually happy to see the nurses when the needles aren’t around, says Mom.
Janelle describes her little girl as a “very, very cheerful baby, and not shy at all.”
She loves music and her favourite song is “Lonely Drum” by Aaron Goodvyn. She loves puppies, both real and toy ones. ‘Pup,’ is her favourite word, but she’s fond of saying wow, momma, and bubba, too. She started walking a couple of weeks prior to her Oct. 29 first birthday.
And some time after that, Dayla’s mood started to change.
“She wasn’t eating and, very, very sooky, and only wanting Mommy.”
Mom and baby arrived at the IWK Children’s Hospital on Dec. 6 and Mom learned the neuroblastoma diagnosis a week later.
“I knew there was something up, but I didn’t think it was this severe,” said Janelle.
“I could be a nurse, practically,” she says in assessing what she’s learned since the diagnosis.
She even received training on how to clean her daughter’s central line and give her daily injections.
Dayla’s first hospital stay lasted a month and two days and included her first round of chemotherapy from Dec. 22 to 24. She just returned home last weekend from her second round of treatments. “She’s so happy. You wouldn’t even be able to tell she was sick,” Janelle said in describing how her daughter has rallied.
On Sunday, if blood tests are at the right levels, Dayla and Mom will fly to Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital to have some of Dayla’s stem cells harvested and then stored until a double stem cell transplant, tentatively set for May in Toronto.
In between those Toronto visits will be more chemotherapy treatments in Halifax. Janelle and Dayla are due to return to Halifax on Feb. 3 to await the start of in-patient chemotherapy on Feb. 5.
If that schedule is maintained, the pair will not be back in P.E.I. for the Dayla Gallant benefit night planned for the O’Leary Legion on Feb. 4, which happens to be World Cancer Day.
Several family members and friends have been working hard at organizing the benefit, Janelle acknowledges.
There will be entertainment starting at 7 p.m., followed by silent and live auctions and more entertainment.
Funds from the benefit will assist with medical, travel and living expenses.
The stem cell transplant is expected to result in a two-to three-month stay in Toronto followed by up to a three months stay in Halifax.