Wings of Hope For Sara
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
By: Holly O'Neill

My cousin was 14 when she passed away from brain cancer after a 9 month battle.

My father and his brother Ryan are very close. My uncle Ryan's kids Sara Emily and Shane who are all close to the same age as me and my brother and sister. My uncle Ryan and his wife Shelley live in London Ontario but that has never stopped us kids from being practically inseparable when we were together. When we were little we'd make huge forts with as many blankets as we could find in the house, and put on shows for our parents. As we got older we became even closer, Sara and I became more friends than anything else, giving each other advice on what was going on in each other’s lives, whether it was troubles with friends or boys. I can remember Sara and me's
obsession faze with Justin bieber. As kids I remember going to storyland in the summer when they came up. I remember when Sara used to cry when she heard sirens because she thought someone she knew was hurt. 

Last year Sara started to have strange symptoms, like a sore throat and crazy mood swings, she fought with her parents and siblings a lot. At first the doctors dismissed it. Then Sara started getting dizzy and having trouble swallowing. The doctors tested her more than once for mono and treated her for strep throat. Sara was on a basketball team at the time and had a tournament coming up in Ottawa and we were all getting very excited because that meant they'd stay at our house for the weekend. However, without much explanation plans were cancelled, and then Sara told me she was in the hospital. 

My parents told my brother and sister and me that it was nothing serious, but I knew you didn't stay in a hospital overnight if it wasn't anything serious. For a little while there was just my parents whispering when you'd come into a room and then they'd stop, but finally told us after about a week or so, a tumour had been found in Sara's brain. They told us they weren't sure if it was cancerous and everything was still very optimistic. It was hard for our parents to know what they could tell us because Ryan and Shelley weren't ready to talk yet and our parents weren't sure what Sara and her brother and sister had been told.

Sara started radiation within a few days of her tumour being found. The radiation made the tumour swell and her condition kept on getting worse and worse, she could not swallow at all, she forgot how to walk, couldn't use her hands, she started to lose her vision, lost her ability to speak, and had no appetite. Things became very serious and her parents were forced to decide whether or not to perform life saving measures if she stopped breathing on her own.

Fortunately she started to get better all at once and her ability to swallow and breathe came back. My parents told us that the tumour was cancerous. In April 2012 Sara was diagnosed with a brain stem glioma. This is a tumour that grows in your brain stem. This type of tumour is very rare. It's a good thing it is rare however it was bad for Sara since there is no known cure. Sara though being determined as she was and never allowing anyone or anything to get the best of her fought through this time and started to improve. Sara's radiation treatments brought her back to almost normal but because of where the tumour was she could only have one course of treatment. If and when the tumour came back radiation would not be an option.

She also started exploring many different paths for experimental treatment, such as homeopathic medicines. After a few weeks Sara was released from the hospital. Although her condition was getting better, Sara was not a healthy young girl anymore. She had to take large doses of steroids and these made her swell and feel unwell.

May long weekend, we headed down to London to visit. On the way down my parents prepared us for what we'd see. When we got to London nothing had prepared me for the state that Sara was in. Sara was unable to walk on her own, and was very, very skinny. All I could think was why is it that a 13 year old who was fine only a few months ago needed help to walk? The steroids were helping her
start eating, to gain more weight. Time passed by and Sara's condition kept on improving, and the tumour shrank with radiation. 

We all learned more each day about Sara's condition and we found out that her tumour could be one of two things, either a high grade tumour or a low grade tumour. The low grade tumour was much better, a low grade tumour can usually be shrunk with radiation, and won't grow again for many years hopefully. Whereas a high grade tumour grows much faster and the outcome is not as optimistic. Because the tumour was in her brain stem, though, they couldn't biopsy it to find out what kind of tumour it was. So it was wait and see.

Sara had a bucket list of many things she wanted to do. She qualified for make a wish foundation and the family was given a Disney cruise. She also travelled to Chicago. She got to meet her favourite band Marianas trench with her family and her best friend Emily dearlove. And the band wore Sara bracelets on stage. Sara also got to attend many London knights games and met the team, and became
very close with the goal coach who would actually text her in the middle of a game to tell her how the game was going. Bracelets had also been made in Sara's favourite colour, purple, these bracelets said hope for Sara on them. Also a logo was made for Sara, Sara loved butterflies, so it's an outline of a purple butterfly with Hope For Sara written in it.

My uncle Ryan's best friend growing up in Douglas, billy mchale started to raise funds for Sara, a total of about $15,000 was raised for Sara and he gave it to her to spend how she wanted. In the summer, Sara and her family drove up from London to visit. Sara looked almost normal this time, and she was eating again. Her vision was clear, she was able to talk and to walk.

Part of Sara's bucket list was to go and see our dads hunt camp that they go to every year. So our dads and our cousins John Donohue and his kids Caitlyn, and Ryan, and friends of uncle Ryan's all went four wheeling on a very rainy day at the hunt camp. Sara even flipped a four wheeler with my sister, which was quite humorous. During that week we did the normal things that always occurred when we were together, lots and lots of fishing, since Shane is literally obsessed with it. Lots of tubing and boating, and lots of poker. One night we actually cleared off the table in my laundry room and blasted music and played poker till three in the morning. Sara, Emily, and Shane used to fight constantly, but always with good spirit. I still remember the look on Sara's face when she threatened to throw all of her poker chips at her sisters face. During that time a baseball tournament was held to raise money for Sara. Many people came to the baseball tournament in Douglas and there was a party at Billys afterwards.

After summer was over things started getting a little more bleak. Sara was faced with the decision of whether or not she'd return to school for grade 9. She started off at one high school but sadly her best friend Emily dearlove attended a different school in London. Sara felt lonely at her school, and was affected by her breakup with her boyfriend. Also Sara was finding it hard to go to school in her condition. She ended up switching schools to the one Emily attended. She spent 1 day at the new school. 

A hospital in Boston had suggested Sara try chemotherapy to help prevent the tumour from growing but before she took very many doses, we found out Sara's tumour had gotten bigger. This meant the tumour was a high grade tumour and that meant that we had to prepare for the worst, there were no more known treatments.

Sara was started back on steroids, and continued to take homeopathic supplements. We did not know how much time Sara had left only that it was very limited. She had parties for her basketball team, and had friends over all the time. I'd often text her in the morning when I was at school and she'd say to me haha you're at school, well I'm at home getting a massage. The knights hockey masseuse actually came to her house to give her a massage!

At the beginning of November we had a family get together for our grandmother's birthday. Sara at this point had started gaining lots of weight from the steroids, and her symptoms were returning, except for the trouble speaking. She was very tired that weekend we spent together. However, we still managed to play poker and watch movies. We also visited again just before Christmas to
exchange gifts and spend more time together. Sara wanted to come to renfrew, but due to the state she was in was unable to. She was also making plans with my sister for us all to go on a trip together somewhere in the summer. At Christmas time, Sara's condition was getting really bad, and she had gained an extreme amount of weight from the steroids. Sara was once again having trouble,
walking especially. However that didn't stop Sara from shopping. One of the days we were there I took Sara shopping, I had to push her around in a wheelchair, but we made it through the very packed mall. The worst thing about going was everyone staring. Sara had gained a lot of weight from the steroids, her face was very round and she was in a wheel chair. One of her eyes drooped
and looked downward. i knew no one staring at her could understand the struggle she was going through. However it didn't bug sara one bit. I helped Sara pick out gifts for her friends and family. This was the last time I ever saw Sara, we stayed in touch of course.

We had plans to go down the weekend after exams at the end of January. This was also right around my brothers birthday which is the 27th of January and Sara's brothers birthday which is January 30th. 

On the day on of Shane's birthday it was a snowday, however my mother woke me up before she went to work. She told me last night Sara's conditions became worse, she lost consciousness at 11:00pm, her family sat around her and her palliative nurse came to care for her. Also their priest came to pray for her. Sara and her sister Emily had made a book of everything they had done in their
lives. Emily sat right beside her in Sara's hospital bed that was in their home, and read the story they had made. When Emily finished the story Sara drew her last breath at 3 am. Sara O'Neill passed away January 30th, 2013 at the age of 14 after a 9 month long battle with cancer. At Sara's wake many stories were shared. I sat with Sara's best friend Emily and shared stories for a long time.
Sara's younger brother also said that every year on his birthday he plans to go and bring flowers to his sister. Many people cared for Sara, and she touched many people's lives. She never was angry or scared after she recovered from being so sick when she was diagnosed. She made the most of every minute after that. When Sara passed away my cousins and I in her memory tweeted what was on her bracelets, #hopeforsara. Sara's missed by many, and I think about her everyday. I love Sara and will miss her for forever, I'll repeat what many others have said, heaven gained a beautiful angel.