ABBOTSFORD RALLIES TO SUPPORT YOUNG GIRL’S CANCER BATTLE
PROVINCE CARES: Community rallies to support Abbotsford girl battling rare form of disease in her spine
The Province Cares is a new series that profiles the stories of British Columbians who need your help:
Abbotsford’s little Greta Loewen is only five years old and already she’s faced more challenges than most of us do in our entire lives. Unfortunately, Greta is fighting for her life.
Greta was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, Ewing’s sarcoma, just before Christmas.
She has endured months of chemotherapy and proton therapy at B.C. Children’s and Massachusetts General Hospital.
The cancer has attacked her spine and Greta has already had one spinal surgery, which partially removed three vertebrae and a portion of the tumour. Despite all this, Greta still maintains much of a five-year-old’s joy and zest for life.
Greta has been accompanied on her difficult journey by her parents, Tim Loewen and Heather Munro, who have both taken time off work to be with their family.
“Tim and I have both left our jobs to take care of our daughter and our family through this,” Heather, a midwife, told The Province.
“I’ve lived my life taking care of women and their babies, and now I’ve needed to be with mine.”
Greta is not the only child Tim and Heather have to care for. They have three other children: a daughter who is in high school, a son in elementary school who is autistic and partially deaf, and a little girl who is almost two years old. Family members are often separated for weeks at a time because of Greta’s medical travels, and it has been hard on them.
It doesn’t make things any easier that even with the specialized care Greta has been receiving, there is a high chance of the cancer recurring.
It’s an incredibly difficult situation for the family, and the financial burden caused by both parents having to leave work has only made things more difficult. To try to ease the burden, friends of the family have created a YouCaring fundraising page under the heading “Help sweet 5-year-old Greta fight cancer.”
The efforts of everyone to help have not only made it possible for Tim and Heather to remain at Greta’s side, but also for her siblings to occasionally visit her in the hospital.
“When Tim shows up with the other kids for a visit, Greta is over the moon!” Heather said. “This kind of love helps Greta heal. It helps get her out of bed and get moving and playing so much more than a visit from the physiotherapist …
“When we’re given the odds of 40 per cent or less of making it through this, we want to live with hope that she will survive and also make the most out of every moment that we have in between.”
Greta may need more surgery yet to remove more of the tumour, as well as to put rods in to stabilize her spine.
“The role of surgery is a question that’s being discussed with outside experts,” said Dr. Rebecca Deyell, Greta’s physician at B.C. Children’s Hospital. She also thinks Greta has been a trooper during the ordeal.
“She’s tolerated her chemotherapy well,” she said. “It’s not easy, chemotherapy, for any kid.”
Abbotsford has rallied to support Greta and her family with bottle drives, arts sales, community dances and much more. You can read about the various charitable endeavours at the Greta’s Team Facebook page at facebook.com/gretasteam.
Heather and Tim are trying to make the most of their time with Greta during these difficult days.
“The nicest thing in the world I could have ever seen was this morning, when I opened up my eyes and had Greta leaning over, and looking right at me,” Heather said. “The best view ever.”
Read more of The Province Cares at theprovince.com/cares.
“I’ve lived my life taking care of women and their babies, and now I’ve needed to be with mine.” — Heather Munro