Sasha goes back to school

While six year old Sasha, with her confident grin, may look like your average first grader ready to take on the world, what you can’t tell is that she’s faced a lot of uncertainty in her life and fought hard to get to this moment.

Diagnosed at CHEO with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia at just four years old, Sasha spent many weeks at a time in isolation. When she wasn’t admitted in hospital, she had to be careful being out in public and would wear a mask. She could only play at empty parks and with family and friends who were healthy. That’s part of the reason why Sasha is so excited to be back at school, she gets to be around other kids her age and play with them.

It’s been a tough journey but the whole time the family felt they were taken great care of by the CHEO team. “Not only did Sasha receive lifesaving treatment and thorough medical care after her stem cell transplants, she has also been loved and truly cared about by all CHEO staff,” says Sasha’s dad, Julien.

While being cooped up in hospital is never something anyone wants, the family experienced many bright moments during Sasha’s care at CHEO. Their top five include:

1. Mollypenny! CHEO’s therapeutic clown made Sasha the happiest when on one of her many visits she joined Sasha for a dinner of hot dogs and homemade sushi. Yum!
2. A nurse singing “Part of Your World” (from the Little Mermaid) to Sasha while she injected morphine into her little body in the middle of the night.
3. Child life specialists asking families on 4North if they had extra cheese strings because Sasha was on steroids and one day really needed them.
4. A team of doctors doing the Baby Shark dance just to see Sasha smile, but still being ok if her reaction was tears instead.
5. Mollypenny letting Sasha cut off a lock of her blue hair to help her feel brave for her own hair to get cut in preparation for hair loss from chemo.

This special bond with CHEO reached all the way to Memphis, Tennessee where Sasha underwent one of her stem cell transplants. “We had a constant connection to our team at home,” says Sasha’s mom, Olga. “They cared about us even when we were far away.” Mollypenny sent mail, emails and even FaceTimed with Sasha to help keep her spirits up during this tough time away from home.

“Going back to school is exciting, but definitely a little overwhelming after being away for almost two years,” says Olga. It’s a bit overwhelming for her parents too, with the added worry of protecting their daughter from the flu and other infections, and wanting her to feel accepted after having a different journey than other kids. “But right now, our happiness and joy outweighs all of that anxiety,” says Julien.

The family plans to take it day by day and just enjoy reaching this milestone. “It means we have our daughter back and she is healthy,” says Olga. “It means we can walk her to school with a smile and a happy heart and cherish every single day.”