Kelowna toddler officially cancer-free

Kelowna toddler Elara Isagawa has won her fight.

The two-year-old girl, who was diagnosed with cancer last Christmas, was given a clean bill of health on April 7, according to her grandmother Candace Chisholm.

Chisholm said Elara had her final MRI and CT scan to see if the chemotherapy was effective. The doctors told the family if there were masses left, they would be benign.

But the tests came back all clear, and the whole family is now scheduled to come back to Kelowna on April 12.

Elara had a final surgery to remove the line that administered her chemotherapy on April 8.

“Right now, we’re just making sure everything is all perfect from the surgery and the healing process from that. Then we’re good to go on Sunday,” Chisholm said.

“Honestly, I’m in awe of her. She’s such a rockstar and was just always full of energy throughout this ordeal. As a matter of fact, we’ve gotten a lot of comments from nurses saying ‘this girl doesn’t even know she’s sick’. She just tore through it. There were down days, don’t get me wrong, but she really handled it well.”

Chisholm said they wouldn’t have been able to get through Elara’s illness had it not been for the support of the community.

“Without the community’s support, I don’t think we would’ve had the energy to keep her energy up. We were fed by the community… we relied on and were tethered to our community in Kelowna. Not only did they step up for us, but they truly rallied for us. It’s almost hard to talk about because it’s so humbling,” she said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life and I’ll forever be grateful and try to give back. We’re just so grateful and so so humbled.”

Chisholm added the whole family will be in isolation once they get back to Kelowna to keep Elara safe and healthy but as soon as the pandemic passes, they want to celebrate with the community that helped her through her trial.