Meet Leighton
Meet Leighton
This creative, young Dream Kid is in remission and getting ready to experience a Dream Come True!
Seven-year-old Leighton is extremely creative – she loves art and fashion. She has a passion for swimming, a great sense of humour, and she’s a great big sister. Leighton is just starting grade 2. It’s an exciting time for her since she hasn’t really been to school in-person before now.
Leighton was diagnosed with stage four high risk neuroblastoma when she was just two (and three quarters) years old. For the next two years, Leighton underwent several forms of treatment. It started with five rounds of heavy chemotherapy – each about four weeks long.
Photo: Dream Kid Leighton’s courage and positive outlook allowed her to persevere through her treatments.
After finishing chemotherapy, Leighton had a surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Following that, she underwent 20 rounds of radiation therapy, two separate stem cell transplants (each about a month long), and six months of immunotherapy. Leighton and her family lived in the hospital during a lot of those treatments.
“We called her the warrior princess,” her dad told us. “Because she really is a princess, but also has the resiliency and that warrior spirit. Her courage and positive outlook, even when things were really rough for her, definitely allowed her to persevere.”
“As Leighton would say, she ‘kicked cancer’s butt!’”
Since then, Leighton’s been in remission. She’s happy and healthy and is finally able to go to school and living like a kid should. She’s taking gymnastics and is learning how to skate for the first time.
Photo: Leighton “kicked cancer’s butt” and now she’s excited to experience a Dream come true!
Leighton loves Disney princesses and has always been fascinated with Disney World. Even before she and her family were referred to The Dream Factory, she had often talked about wanted to go to Disney. When Leighton first visited The Dream Factory, she told us she might want to visit either Disney World or the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. She was delighted to learn that those two are basically in the same place. After hearing about Disney and Give Kids The World, in Leighton’s own words: “My mind is BLOWN!”
“Hearing about the magic of what this Dream will be was really overwhelming,” Leighton’s dad shared with us. “The magic of life is just so important, and Leighton’s got a lot of that in her as well. Just to see her eyes getting wider and wider as she learned about the magic of Disney World was great to see.”
Leighton is excited for almost all the aspects of her trip – the plane ride, swimming in the pool, the rides, ice cream for breakfast, and just about everything else. But she’s most excited to be able to go with her little sister, her mom, and her dad.