“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”—Tim Cahill
If you looked inside the homes of children affected by cancer, tucked away inside a closet or a drawer, you would find a tangle of colourful beads. Red beads, yellow beads, turquoise, pink, glow-in-the-dark beads. Part of the standard of care for children with cancer, the Beads of Courage program helps children understand the complex and often painful medical procedures they experience. Each bead represents a milestone in the trek against cancer and each one tells a unique story of courage and hope. This is Ethan’s story…
Ethan Olmats was diagnosed with infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (I-ALL) when he was three months old. There wasn’t a day in his life when he wasn’t sick. In July 2007, after sharing a big smile with his uncle Paul, who had travelled great distances to meet him for the first time, Ethan passed away.
Although Ethan’s life was painfully short, he left an imprint in the lives and in the hearts of his family. His Beads of Courage remain a testament to his joyful presence and courageous spirit.
Ethan’s beads are exceptionally long because he was very sick and his family lovingly recorded each and every step.
Imagine a string of colourful beads—2,561 beads, pink, blue, black, red—piled high on your kitchen table. Now imagine stretching them out—68.5 feet of colour running the perimeter of your kitchen. Five times. Now consider that each tiny bead represents a medical procedure.
Ethan would want you to know that his string of beads was long because there were also a lot of happy moments on his journey—a trip to Bowness Park, visits from his big brothers, his first birthday.
“All the pink ones are Ethan’s visitors,” says Ethan’s older brother Kevin.
“And the large pink one with the red polka dots is a special one,” says Ethan’s mother Colleen. “That’s the first time his big brothers visited him in the ICU at the hospital.”
The bead Colleen points to appears early in Ethan’s Beads of Courage because Erik and Colleen Olmats made a point of including the older boys in the journey. Juggling busy work schedules and extracurricular activities, Colleen and Erik struggled to keep life normal for Ethan’s older brothers, Cameron and Kevin.
It’s an approach they adopted early and maintain today—even in their grief. The Olmats are a loving family that openly talks about Ethan and the loss of his joyful presence.
The beads help the Olmats regain perspective: “When I’m feeling down,” says Erik, “I just look at these beads and see what Ethan went through and I know I have nothing to feel badly about.”
The beads also help the older boys to understand. When Ethan was on treatment, Kevin brought the beads to school to show his classmates and explain what his baby brother was going through. And Colleen adds, “When Cameron was old enough, the beads were there to help him understand too.”
Thank you. You helped dignify a child’s cancer experience by making Beads of Courage possible.