Story of Heroes - Shawn
Shawn
When Shawn was first diagnosed with a brain tumour at the young age of 16 months, his mother Sue would shudder every time an IV was inserted into his little arm. What Sue quickly learned was that this was the least invasive procedure Shawn would endure in his short 3 years.
Shawn’s journey with cancer included three major brain surgeries, a tube inserted through his nose down to his stomach so his calories could be supplemented, monthly MRIs, multiple visits to clinics, hours spent in the car and in therapy sessions, and months spent in a hospital bed.
Chemo involved the insertion of a PICC line into Shawn’s chest for easy access to a large vein. For radiation, it was the daily trips to the treatment unit where he was sedated while wearing a customized mask to ensure the radiation was aimed as accurately as possible. The daily chemo regimen required his parents to hold him down and spray a poisonous concoction down his throat, causing him to feel nauseous and tired all day.
For Shawn's parents, the journey with cancer meant sleeping wherever and whenever they could, quitting work or working more, missing their other child’s life events, draining finances, borrowing money and of course worrying.
There were moments when Shawn smiled and the family was all happy. Those moments are the ones they treasure the most. “But the reality of a cancer diagnosis for a child brings with it an array of what seem like torturous treatments, which unfortunately is the lesser of two evils when it comes to the alternative,” Sue explains. “That alternative for us is the reality of childhood cancer. After there was nothing more that could be done, we watched helplessly as Shawn lost each one of his abilities in the last few months of his life. Gone was the ability to walk and then the ability to use his arms. Slowly he lost his ability to talk, to move, and even eventually to blink and swallow. Then, of course, his ability to breathe which took his life as we held him in our arms.”
