Meet Beckett
Meet Beckett
A bright 11-year old living with Cystic Fibrosis.
Beckett is a precocious little 11-year old. He likes to sneak up on people, enjoys competitive diving, and adores all plants and animals.
Beckett was born with Cystic Fibrosis, a life-limiting disease that affects how he breaths, digests food, and how his organs work. He has battled many health challenges resulting in 15 long hospital stays, hundreds of medical procedures, and over 30 medications a day.
This past October, Beckett started coughing up blood: the first sign that a particularly insidious lung infection was silently eating away at his lung tissue. The treatment usually takes 12-18 months and only works 40% of the time. So, he had surgery to install a port-a-cath, and began IV infusion of a 4-drug cocktail therapy, but quickly became allergic to it and resulted in liver damage. He began another cocktail in December, and was finally discharged from Winnipeg Children’s Hospital 47 days later.
Pictured: Beckett cuddling up to “Barry” - The Dream Factory teddy bear.
“Beckett lives every day to the fullest, even cracking jokes when he is undergoing the worst side effects. He is bright, and happy, and just wants to cuddle all the animals he can meet.”
At home, Beckett continued with up to 4 hours per day of IV therapy on top of his regular 2-hours per day of breathing therapy. He also made a trip to Toronto to meet specialists at The Hospital for Sick Kids, failed and started a third treatment cocktail after more organ damage was detected, and eventually had to be admitted again for surgery to put in a feeding tube.
After 7 months of daily nausea, permanent hearing loss, and no major improvements in his health, Beckett stopped his NTM treatment in June. Along with his doctors, we are going to monitor how he does without treatment and focus on quality-of-life. This week, that means being fitted for hearing aids, going to the beach, and riding his bicycle. Beckett lives every day to the fullest, even cracking jokes when he is undergoing the worst side effects. He is bright, and happy, and just wants to cuddle all the animals he can meet. His Dream is to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef and dive with the sharks! Your help for Beckett, and our family, to make his Dream come true is the greatest gift we could ask for.