Meet Emily
She loves baking cookies, swimming, dogs, and art!
In many ways, Emily is just like any 15-year-old girl. She’s likes swimming, art, wants to be a teacher after high school and she’s learning to drive. She loves dogs, her dad’s homemade butter chicken, and she loves to bake – especially cookies!
But there’s something that sets Emily apart from her peers.
Three years ago, Emily began complaining about her eyesight. Her parents were confused - they had just seen the eye doctor and he gave Emily a clean bill of health. Further strange events and many trips to the local ER in The Pas later resulted in a medical evacuation to Children’s Hospital, where the unimaginable was confirmed – Emily was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
An MRI and CT scan confirmed a mass in Emily’s brain. Emergency surgery to place a shunt to relieve the pressure on her brain due to hydrocephalus was performed, and a biopsy took place to confirm the diagnosis of Panhypopituitarism secondary to suprasellar germinoma. And with that, her journey began.
Emily has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy, and eighteen rounds of radiation. Emily had to leave her home in The Pas and stayed in Winnipeg for treatment for nearly five months. Fortunately, the doctors were able to completely eradicate the tumour.But Emily’s journey is far from over.
The tumour left her with a host of cognitive and visual impairments and all-around health issues. Complications that will be part of her daily life, forever. But that hasn’t stopped Emily from doing the things she loves and from continuing to dream BIG!
Adventurous Emily is dreaming about visiting Australia! She has family in the land down under she would like to visit! She also wants to check out the Australia Zoo to see a kangaroo – of course!
Emily has been through a lot and continues to battle through adversity. With your support, we can help give her a Dream Come True that she so greatly deserves.
send a message of support to Emily and her family:
Emily has fought through a lot, your kind words will help lift her spirits!
Emily loves to bake - especially cookies! As part of this year’s campaign, we thought it would be a special touch to send Emily your favourite recipe along with our messages of support from our team at Emergent!
All you have to do is fill out the form below with your recipe and message of support to Emily, and we’ll compile your recipes into a Dream recipe book to share with Emily and her family!
A Message from Emergent Biosolutions:
Emergent BioSolutions is committed to Giving, Investing and Volunteering in our Emergent communities, and does this through our Emergent GIVES social responsibility program, which is one of the ways that we bring about change for families and communities. Through financial donations and volunteer activities, Emergent works with partner organizations to make a difference and support the long-term goals of the charity.
Emergent Winnipeg’s partnership with The Dream Factory, a charity that transforms the lives of children with critical illnesses by granting their dreams, is one of those important partnerships.
Your contributions to Month of Dreams campaigns in the past have helped fulfill many dreams, like sending Lily to meet Hope and Winter (“Dolphin Tale” dolphins at Clearwater Marine Aquarium), sending Matthew to have fun at Disney World, and fulfilling Marek’s big dream to go on a one-of-a-kind camping adventure with his family! Last year, Emergent Biosolutions supported Greysen’s Dream to visit London, England - we’re excited to share that Greysen and his family plan on travelling across the pond this fall!
This year, the Fundraising Campaign will support Emily’s dream come true! During the campaign we will raise funds through online donations, online purchase of virtual medals, and an eGIVE matching donation commitment.
Let’s make more dreams come true!