Yk comes through for terminally ill girl
Rheanna Trepanier diagnosed with brain cancer in October; community organizes snowmobile and sled-dog adventures
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Anybody who saw Rheanna Trepanier ripping the trails over the weekend wouldn't guess she is terminally ill with brain cancer.
Rheanna Trepanier, 10, rides a snowmobile on Saturday. The young girl flew up to Yellowknife from Edmonton over the weekend to do activities she had listed on her bucket list, as she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in October. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
The 10-year-old girl was too excited about her snowmobile ride and dog-sledding adventure to focus on her illness.
"There's one word that describes Yellowknife: cold," she said, after the Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures snowmobile ride that took her jetting across Yellowknife Bay and Great Slave Lake on Saturday afternoon.
"It was cool. It went fast. There was a whole bunch of buttons. There was one that you press to go and there was a break handle bar thing," she said. The Edmonton girl is very ill. On Oct. 31, the school called her mother after teachers found her with her eyes rolling back in her head and vomiting.
Later that day, doctors at Stollery Children's Hospital told Rheanna and her family they had discovered four malignant tumours in her brain.
She was diagnosed with two different types of brain tumours - grade III anapaestic oligodendroglioma and grade IV glioblastoma.
In early November, she underwent a lengthy operation to remove the largest tumour on her right temporal lobe. The surgery was unsuccessful. The doctor could not remove the entire tumour because "it was like an octopus with many angry tentacles protruding into delicate areas of her brain," according to the Facebook page called Rheanna's Bucket List. She was given a few months to live.
On Dec. 5, Rheanna started six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation in order to give her as much time with her family as possible.
This is also when she started her bucket list.
With help from people everywhere she began crossing items off her list, including going to an Oilers game where she met Connor McDavid, riding an airplane, getting a giant teddy bear, making her own pottery and getting a guitar.
Her mother Marissa Trepanier said the young girl is fully aware of what's happening.
"One day you can go from being a family, doing your everyday thing, to the next day your child is really, really sick," said Trepanier.
"The worst news any parent could ever get was given to me and now we're just trying to make the best out of everyday."
Tanya Kidson was one person from the Yellowknife team of businesses who helped bring Rheanna to Yellowknife.
She said her friend in Edmonton, former Yellowknifer Carrie Bujold, saw Rheanna's story on the news. When she found out dog sledding was on the list, she jumped at the opportunity to help.
"Literally it was just friends calling each other and making it happen. It was really easy," Kidson said.
On Sunday the family, who included Rheanna's younger brother, older sister and grandmother, had the opportunity to dogsled with help from Beck's Kennels.
Canadian North covered the plane tickets, Coast Fraser Tower Hotel covered their stay and Beck's Kennels provided the dogsled ride.
Rheanna's adventure was also made possible by Great Slave Snowmobile Association, Air Tindi, Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures and Rockstar Entertainment Group.
Trepanier explained that as a single mother she would not have been able to afford to do all these things and expressed her gratitude to the community.
"I'm very appreciative to every person and complete strangers who helped us - it's amazing, the support is overwhelming."
Rheanna also had a warm thank-you to everybody who helped her fulfill her last wishes.
"I've been doing all the stuff I've wanted to do," Rheanna told Yellowknifer.
"Thank you for all the people that helped me with getting the stuff I wanted to do."
