This week, after almost nine months of treatment, a Maine fifth-grader who made care packages for pediatric cancer patients — all while undergoing chemotherapy himself — was declared cancer-free.
Last spring, a limp led Nolan Cyr, who was a 10-year-old fourth-grader and avid ice hockey player at the time, to an orthopedist. An X-ray and follow-up MRI revealed a lesion in his left femur. Instead of the sports injury his parents suspected, their son was diagnosed with a bone cancer called osteosarcoma. He'd need 18 roundsof chemotherapy in weeklong spurts, plus a limb-sparing surgery to replace part of the affected bone with a prosthetic implant.
"We were in a state of shock when we found out — the moment we learned it was cancer I could feel the blood literally draining from my face," says Nolan's mom, Angela Cyr. "Of course Nolan was scared, but he's always been so strong and so positive. He took everything in stride."
Nolan began chemotherapy treatment on May 1 at Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Angela left her job as an NICU nurse to care for her son full-time.
The chemotherapy left Nolan very ill very often, in and out of the hospital for treatments and related infections. "We had so many people rally around us," Angela says, noting a color run fundraiser Nolan's school arranged in May, which raised $1,500.
The Cyr family bookmarked these funds for the hospital. "We truly wanted to give back," she says. "But our stipulation was that it had to go to the kids and not get lost somewhere."
Nolan and his mom decided to put the money toward buying the items that made his hospital stays more comfortable — like putty, hats, neck pillows, hot chocolate, invisible ink pens, stress balls, bubble gum, hand sanitizer, heat packs, ointment, and silly string (to prank the oncologists) — for other pediatric cancer patients.
They purchased enough of Nolan's favorite things to stuff backpacks for 25 kids, and called them "Nolan's Warrior Packs." Nolan also included a hand-written note — "We are all warriors and with a lot of positivity, we can make the best out of a not so great situation" — with his contact information.
Although Nolan couldn't hand-deliver the bags, since it would be considered a violation of patients' privacy, some recipients sent photos of themselves with their packs, and the hospital staffers would report back to the Cyrs on how much kids enjoyed them.
Pleased with the positive response, the Cyr family set up an Amazon Wish list for more pack items, launched a fundraiser to foot the bill for things they couldn't find on Amazon, and spread the word to their community via their "Fight Like a Cyr" Facebook page. Packages and donations poured in until they'd raised enough for 75 more packs — enough for every pediatric cancer patient at Barbara Bush Children's Hospital to receive one, with extras to spare for new admissions.
Nolan's last chemo treatment was in December, and doctors officially declared him in remission on January 23.
Because his leg is still healing, he can't walk on it yet, and will require physical therapy several times a week. Although Nolan will never skate again — because of the particular prosthetic he perceived, he can't play high-impact sports or run, lest he wear out the joint — he plans to take up swimming when he's healed, and play on a local sled hockey team.
Now that Nolan is 11, he has even bigger plans. "I know he will continue to support the hospital and the kids with Warrior Packs once their supply is depleted,"Angela says. "He's put smiles on the faces of so many kids, and he still does."
Photos: Meg Hatch Photography
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