Three years ago, the unthinkable happened for the Stephens family. Their son Thatcher was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma at just four months old. They were immediately airlifted to Vancouver, eight hours away from their home in the Kootenays. Dad Mark remembers the stress of being uprooted from their lives and landing at the hospital. “We come from a town of 1,700 people – the whole hospital at any given time has more people than our community.”
Over the next six months Thatcher underwent chemotherapy along with countless scans and tests. Given his stage four diagnosis, they had no idea how long treatment would last.
One of their main worries was how they could stay in Vancouver, with their family separated. “Before this, the longest I had been away from my family was a week, and for Keri a day,” remembers Mark. “Coming here, we didn’t know when we would be able to be together as a family again.” They checked in to Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon just in time for their daughter Clementine’s birthday – a silver lining that they didn’t expect.
During times when Mark and their older girls needed to return home for work and school, mom Keri appreciated the close proximity to the hospital, meaning that she didn’t have to worry about navigating the city with a sick child. She also had a built-in community of support at the House with volunteers, staff and other families.
And, in the midst of the most stressful time in their lives, the family was able to find small pockets of normal – including baking delicious creations in the shared kitchen and celebrating Thatcher’s first Christmas together as a family.
