$18K raised for four-year-old cancer patient

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This article was published 04/08/2024 (350 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nights spent at the Children’s Hospital, away from family and friends, extended time off from work and praying every day for help. That’s what the Bueckert’s lives were like for months, while four-year-old Elliott battled cancer.

Their world became a little brighter last week, thanks to Brooke and Koda’s Iced Tea Stand fundraiser.

Tracey, Karl, Myles and Elliott Bueckert’s lives were flipped upside down when a doctor told them the youngest member of their family had stage 3 cancer.

Elliott was diagnosed with a diffused anaplastic Wilms tumour in October. Doctors tried to remove the tumour, but Elliott was bleeding too much during the surgery, so they had to go through chemotherapy instead.

They then did two rounds of chemo, where the tumour shrank by 30 percent, and doctors were then able to remove the tumour. Elliott then did a couple more rounds of chemo and 12 rounds of radiation.

Then they found spots on his lungs that weren’t there before. Doctors removed one spot, leaving the other as its location made it too dangerous to remove.

Elliott then had his own stem cells used for his transplant to cure the spot, with the transplant taking place in late February, with another month in hospital recovering.

Radiation ended when the calendar flipped to May, and they were able to stay at their home south of Vita, with trips back to the city to make sure everything is back to normal.

Doctors also found a genetic mutation in Elliott, which makes him more susceptible to cancers. Elliott needs to have two MRIs a year, alternating between body and brain scans. Elliott’s dad Karl said the mutation makes him more susceptible to blood and brain cancer, which makes the Wilms tumour on his kidney all the more surprising.

“We’re doing pretty good, trying to get back to being home,” Elliott’s mom Tracey said as they moved back home from the hospital. “It felt like such a whirlwind, just trying to get back into the groove of things. Taking some time just to be together as a family, because we were apart for so long.”

Tracey said even though she and Karl didn’t always have a smile on their face, Elliott did, and it rarely went away, with it only missing on days he was sickest.

She said that Elliott didn’t know a lot of what was going on and that he judges his appointments by the office’s playrooms, having fun before hopefully getting good news from the doctor.

She added that hearing the cancer diagnosis from the doctor was terrible and that the family’s lives changed so much.

“It felt like something was wrong, but then when they confirm and they said, ‘your child has cancer,’ you least expect it, and your whole life as you know it is gone, it just changes in a heartbeat,” she said.

Karl said for the eight months after Elliott’s diagnosis, four of them were spent at the Ronald McDonald House, for Tracey it was at the hospital at Elliott’s side. Elliott’s older brother Myles stayed with family and friends in Vita while no one was at home, visiting his brother whenever he could.

Karl also had to leave work to stay close to Elliott. He said he still hasn’t gone back as having the entire family together again is where his mind is.

The family said they are very thankful for the help the southeast has given them, not only through the Brooke and Koda Iced Tea Stand fundraiser but also through prayers and kind messages.

“We’re amazed that so many people care about Elliott, how he’s doing, and how we’re doing,” Tracey said. “I feel like we don’t deserve it, cause we’re just regular people, we’re not special, just regular people.”

“It’s just neat to see how everybody came together when we’re at our lowest,” added Karl.

The Iced Tea Stand chose to help the family from Vita this year, after hearing of what the family had gone through.

Brooke and Marek, who organize the stand, raised $18,000 July 24 and 25, with iced tea, lemonade, cookies, pumpkin bars and merchandise selling as fast as it got there. They beat their total from last year, having raised just over $17,000 twelve months ago.

Brooke Peters, 14, who opened the stand seven years ago said she opened the stand this year out of habit, and to bless a family, the Bueckerts.

Marek Hiebert, 9, is also organizing the fundraiser as a way to give back after he was a recipient of the same stand three years ago.

“Just to see their faces, like forget all of what happened,” Marek said.

Brooke said they’ve been surprised with how people just keep giving, having raised more money every year than the last. They sold everything faster than they expected, with their delicious pumpkin bars being eaten faster than they thought possible, their two-day inventory was nearly wiped out by the end of the first day.

People were also super generous, with one person buying 10 brownies, and giving $800.

“It’s been incredible this year, people would walk up and say they don’t want anything, but just hand us a bill, and then just say have a good day,” Brooke said.

“Seeing the community come together is just an amazing sight to see,” she said. “We live in Steinbach, it isn’t a crazy big place, but we’re getting $18,000 out of the community, that’s just eye-opening to see how well they come to help just one family going through something.”

Marek is in his second year of helping, he also expressed how much it means to organize this for a family in need.

“It’s just fun to help out and see the family just forget all the things that they’ve been through, it’s just so awesome.”

Brooke and Marek presented the Bueckerts with the $18,000 cheque, to help the costs of not being able to work the last 10 months, and all the expenses they had while making sure Elliott gets better.

Tracey said they hope to be in the same position a year from now, going to appointments once a month and nothing more, with Elliott and the rest of the family healthy and happy.