Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, also known as acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), eight-year old Ethan Bryne from Sidney will see his toughest months ahead. The past few weeks have been hard for Ethan, as the type of chemotherapy he receives is consistently changing to ensure the killing of bad blood cells.
Ethan’s aunt, Jennifer Massullo said he’s been very tired recently, sleeping most of the day.
“He’s pretty exhausted from the whole process so far,” she told the PNR.
Ethan and his family travel back and forth to the B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver about once a month to meet with his medical team and he has been able to have treatments administered at Victoria General Hospital. Ethan is currently at home, with his family by his side every step of the way, and goes in once a week for his chemo treatment.
A large help to the family in this rough time has been the constant support from the community.
“The community has been phenomenal, I think my brother and his wife have just been blown away by the outpour of support from everybody,” said Massullo.
Last month, a fundraiser was held at Salon J in Sidney, which saw more than $5,000 raised. There are also two GoFund Me pages, which have together raised around $15,000.
“It certainly helps to take the pressure off of them (Ethan’s parents)…”
She added that Sidney Elementary School has also been great in informing the kids and Ethan’s friends on what’s going on, trying to get him to check in with everyone. Ethan won’t be able to return to school until September at the earliest.
At the end of last month, Ethan was in remission from the chemo, however the team will continue to do aggressive forms of the treatment through the next few months.
“This month March and April will be two of the most challenging periods of chemotherapy for him because they’re the hardest forms of it.”
Massullo said she wanted to add a big thanks to Salon J and staff for holding their event, particularly to Hollie and her husband and kids as it was her idea to hold the event. In addition, she wanted to thank the Pryor’s and Kelsey Garside, as they started the GoFundMe pages, with Kelsey organizing the most recent event, which was held Monday at Boondocks Restaurant.
People can donate at Ethan’s Gofundme pages at https://www.gofundme.com/qmn33grg or https://www.gofundme.com/pznn2cg4.
