Boy who got early Christmas in palliative care
Evan Leversage’s weakness forces ‘choices no mother should have to make’
Evan Leversage was all smiles weeks ago as policemen, the Grinch and Santa wound past his home bringing the festive spirit to the 7-year-old with an inoperable brain tumour who was told he wouldn’t make it to Christmas.
And though the parade in his honour is long over, Christmas hasn’t left the Leversage family, even as Evan unexpectedly entered palliative care last week.
Decorations sprinkle his hospice room and family keep vigil by his bedside, his heartbroken mother Ni- cole Wellwood told the Star on Monday.
“Right now, he is very weak. He is not in pain and he is comfortably sleeping,” she said. “I just got done picking out a casket. I am making choices no mother should have to make.”
It’s a painstaking situation that comes just after Evan completed his bucket list — a litany of wishes including a trip to Niagara Falls, watching Hotel Transylvania 2 with his best friend and dining at Chuck E. Cheese’s.
As late as last Monday, he was even grinning as he took a limo to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Dallas Stars at the Air Canada Centre, where famed hockey dad Walter Gretzky and mascot Carlton the Bear dropped by.
“He has had a full seven years with a lot of memorable moments. There is asense of peace inside me because he got to experience it all,” said Wellwood, who reads him piles of letters and scores of Facebook messages that flooded the family after St. George, a small town west of Hamilton, transformed itself into a winter wonderland.
There were messages from farflung corners of the globe and more than $46,000 raised for Wellwood, Evan and brothers Logan and Tyson on a GoFundMe page called One Last Christmas.
“He remembered every single card written to him,” said his mom. “We are still getting him his mail.”
Doctors had prepped the family months ago for what might lie ahead and he had begun to develop mobility issues, but Wellwood said she was surprised when Evan “took a turn for the worst” and had to be moved into palliative care on Wednesday evening.
Then Sunday, Wellwood’s birthday came, and things got tougher.
“He woke up and was relatively OK and he acknowledged me. I thought everything was good,” she said.
She slipped back home to take a quick shower, but soon after, she said he had “started getting sick and then eventually, went into a deep sleep.”
“He has pretty much been sleeping since yesterday morning,” she said Monday. “It has been very difficult.”
For the family, she said, “that parade itself was so magical that you almost feel like you dreamt it. Feeling that magical moment can be taken away rips my heart out.”
As they struggle to cope with watching Evan slip away, Wellwood said she is hoping to create a foundation in his name, to raise awareness for childhood cancer.
“I want communities to embrace the fighters they have within them,” she said.
“Evan is not the only one in the situation. There are numerous families facing this horrible disease and I want them to feel the love and support as we have in this journey.”