Meet Adria
Meet Adria
A future palaeontologist who is dreaming big for the perfect playhouse!
Letter from A Dream Parent:
Pictured: Adria was all smiles when we delivered a few dinosaur eggs for her to study while she was in the hospital.
Today we’d like to tell you about our daughter Adria. Adria is 8 years old, from a small rural town called Plum Coulee (an hour south of Winnipeg!), and a cancer survivor. This is her story.
Adria is the youngest of 5 children, and has always been very happy and energetic! She loves to run and play, and some of her favourite things are playing outside in the sandbox and on her swing set. However, the thing she enjoys the most in the world is pretending to dig for dinosaur bones! She is absolutely fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils, and has told us that she wants to dig up bones and work with fossils when she grows up.
Things changed for Adria on April 9th, 2018 - when she was just six years old. At kindergarten, she enjoyed gym and recess and all was well until she started to complain about a pain in her right side. At first, we thought it was simply caused by her growing too fast — we were wrong.
After the pain didn’t go away and Adria began to complain of being tired, we knew something wasn’t right. Doctors eventually booked an ultrasound, and all we could do was wait for the results.
Unfortunately, just a few days later - on April 13th - I picked Adria up from school after receiving a call from her teacher that she had been crying from the pain.
We immediately took Adria to urgent care, and finally learned what was causing her pain: she had a very large mass on her right kidney. We learned that we needed to travel from Plum Coulee to Winnipeg’s Children’s Hospital immediately.
The first few weeks after learning about Adria’s illness were a whirlwind: of tests, appointments, chemotherapy, and more. Soon, we were learning so many new things like how to feed her through a tube, when to call the doctor, and the terrible side effects of these treatments.
“We did everything we could to find small moments happiness in Adria’s treatment, and part of that happiness now comes from the excitement of her Dream come true.”
Pictured: Adria gives a peace sign in the “selfie zone” after a treatment at Winnipeg’s Children’s Hospital
After 6 weeks of treatment, Adria had surgery to remove the mass along with her right kidney. This was followed by 15 more radiation treatments.
It was an incredibly difficult period of our lives. On days when Adria was home and feeling okay, we would play outside and dig for hidden dinosaur bones. She loves music, so we often played music for her to sing along with. We even hosted a birthday party in the hospital so that she could see some of her friends - they made a cake out of ice and used syringes to melt the toys frozen inside. It meant so much to us to hear Adria giggling along with her friends.
We did everything we could to find small moments of happiness in Adria’s treatment, and part of that happiness now comes from the excitement of her Dream come true.
Adria’s original Dream was to go to Disney World, but due to COVID-19 she chose another dream, one that is a little bit closer to home. While Adria loves to run and play outside, she also wanted a space in our backyard that was just for her. That’s why her Dream is for the perfect playhouse - a space that has room for all of her favourite things, where she can play with her friends and collect all of the dinosaur bones she finds on her adventures.
Thanks to the wonderful people at The Dream Factory, and everyone who donates to make dreams possible — she will get to know what it feels like to have a dream become a reality. Thank you for making that happen for her, and for so many other kids.
Adria received her last chemotherapy treatment on April 21st, 2019. We celebrated with a party that include all of her friends and it was so great.
Today, Adria is doing well an is on the road to recovery. She has had multiple scans and tests, and we’re happy to share that they have all been clear so far. We are thankful to all of those who were there with us to hold our hands, those who cried with us, and those who did everything that they could to make life easier for us during our time of need. Today, we are smiling because children’s dreams do come true.