A blue scooter, a pumpkin-shaped marshmallow and some oranges.
It’s a pretty simple Christmas list, especially when you consider the little boy it belongs to has been battling leukemia for more than half of his four-and-a-half years.
“I have no idea where I’m going to find a pumpkin-shaped marshmallow in December,” Jackson Russell’s mom Kylie joked, during an interview at Vancouver International Airport.
The Coquitlam-based family, including dad Jesse and Jackson’s brother Benjamin, were at YVR Dec. 7, for a special flight organized by the Children’s Wish Foundation and Air Transat. The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada helps Canadian children, families and communities by granting the favourite wish of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The 12th annual Flights in Search of Santa saw Air Transat planes full of sick kids, parents, siblings, caregivers and media take to the skies from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal in search of the jolly old elf. And, for the second year in a row, a flight from Paris carrying about 50 sick kids and their families also went in search of St. Nick.
As much as Jackson had been looking forward to the flight, according to his mom it had already been a very long morning for the family.
“The drugs make him grumpy,” she said.
It was Boxing Day 2013, when Jackson, just 19-months old at the time, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Russell explained when a child is diagnosed with such a disease, getting them into remission can happen quite quickly. It’s keeping them in remission is the hard part. Jackson will remain in treatment until next April, right around his fifth birthday. Even almost three years after being diagnosed, Jackson’s treatment includes a daily dose of maintenance chemotherapy in pill form given at home, a monthly intravenous infusion of steroids, and every three months he receives chemotherapy drugs intravenously into his spine in an effort to block the disease from spreading to his brain. But, according to Russell, Jackson’s prognosis is good, and the entire family is looking forward to the day he can just be a little boy.
“And he’s really looking forward to finding Santa,” said Russell.
While waiting for the flight to the North Pole, a special pre-boarding area was set up to keep the children busy with visits with “princesses,” including Snow White, and Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper, a magician dressed as an elf and a cookie station. But then it was time to board, and the kids could barely contain themselves. During this time, Air Transat also announced a further $98,975 donation to the foundation, raised partly through the spare change collected over the past year as part of its Small Change, Big Hearts program, through which they ask departing passengers to donate spare change of any currency.
It was about half-way through the 90-minute flight when Santa finally appeared. As the big guy slowly made his way down the aisle and eventually towards the Russell family, Jackson stood on his seat bouncing up and down in excitement. When Santa finally made his way to Jackson, it was obvious the long morning had been worth it for the family and there were smiles and cheers all around.
Landing back at YVR as everyone was disembarking the plane, a boy of about 10 stood waiting for his parents. The boy had shadows under his eyes so dark he looked like he’d taken a beating and a scar across his forehead that visibly stood out on his very pale skin. Another thick scar, about the size of a nickel, was also noticeable on his neck, an obvious sign of extended treatment.
When asked how he enjoyed the flight, the boy’s face lit up and his exhaustion seemed to melt away.
“It was the best day ever,” said the boy. “We found Santa and brought him back to Vancouver just in time for Christmas.”
@sthomas10
