A Friend in Hope

Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada launches children’s storybook

It's a happy, busy Saturday at the Bradley household in Whitby, Ontario. 10-year old Kelly is getting ready to perform four different routines at dance rehearsal. Six-year-old Janelle is eager to show off her own moves while older sister Kristen talks about volunteering at a local grade 3 classroom. Judi and Jeff, mom and dad, find a few moments to catch up after Jeff's recent business trip.

It wasn't so long ago that "busy" at the Bradley household meant something quite different.

Flash back to August 2000. The Bradley’s were unpacking from a move home to London, Ontario. Kelly was looking forward to starting Grade 1 at a new school. The summer was going great, except for the headaches. Trips to the family doctor revealed nothing out of the ordinary. And then Kelly’s headaches started getting worse. One night, Judi recalls, they headed to Emergency and just didn’t leave.

Kelly had a CT-scan and was diagnosed with a pilocytic astrocytoma, a benign brain tumour. It wasn't cancerous, but it was critical. She had surgery at London Health Sciences Centre five days later. "Deep inside, I knew something was wrong all along," Judi says.

Judi vividly recalls pushing her daughter in a wheelchair through the parking lot three weeks later, heading for home. "Life freezes at the hospital. Then you go outside and realize that everything is still normal. Life is still going on all around you."

Kelly is just one of over 300 children diagnosed with a brain tumour each year across Canada. Most parents are handed a free Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada Patient Resource Handbook when their child is first diagnosed. The handbook is a comprehensive guide to tumour types, treatment options and what to expect. "We lived with that handbook, reading and referring to it constantly for the first six months," Judy says. "It was a life saver."

Brain tumours are difficult enough for parents to understand. How do you explain this devastating disease to a child? It’s a problem that Susan Marshall, Executive Director and the mother of a brain tumour survivor, knows well.

The answer appeared many ideas and months of hard work later through "A Friend in Hope," a storybook about a little girl with a brain tumour as told by her best friend Danny.

"We envision parents receiving the Pediatric Patient Resource Handbook for their information and 'A Friend in Hope' for their children," Susan says. "Together, these two books will help the whole family cope with the challenges that lie ahead."

Thanks to a $20,000 grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Foundation will distribute "A Friend in Hope" with each Pediatric Patient Resource Handbook, starting this month. Copies will also go to children's wards and neuro clinics at hospitals and to schools across Canada. The Foundation will distribute 5,000 copies now and, with new funding, more next year.

As a teacher, Judi often uses storybooks to explain complicated ideas to her young students. "The visual simplicity of 'A Friend in Hope' makes it easy for kids of any age to understand," she says. "And understanding makes them more compassionate toward the person who is sick."

Kelly feels the same way. "This book would have helped me better than adults trying to explain about my tumour. It’s all kind of complicated, but Hope explains everything fine to Danny," she says.

Kelly will head back to London this August for her final annual MRI. She will continue to get less frequent check-ups as she grows, just as a precaution. But for now, she’s more focused on dancing, skiing and school-the busy, everyday things lucky 10-year-olds should be thinking about.

Thanks to Ronald McDonald House Charities and many creative collaborators for making "A Friend in Hope" possible.

Jeff Bradley, Kelly's dad and National Director of Training, Learning & Development for McDonald's Restaurants Canada, along with colleague Susan Fryer, encouraged the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada to apply for funding. The Foundation secured a $20,000 grant to produce and distribute the book.

Since 1982, Ronald McDonald House Charities has awarded more than $30 million in grants to over 1,500 charities that help children in need.