{"id":39,"date":"2016-05-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?p=39"},"modified":"2016-06-13T18:54:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T18:54:10","slug":"how-zoee-got-her-groove-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/how-zoee-got-her-groove-back\/","title":{"rendered":"How Zoee Got Her Groove Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
Spellbound, Zoee watches a magician perform at SunRise day camp.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn the last day of SunRise, Zoee didn\u2019t even want to come home. She ran up to me with a little boy and said, \u2018Mom! We met someone else with a port!\u2019 Then they both started showing me their chemo ports. It was amazing! I teared up. It was so beautiful.\u201d ~ Kayla Pasciullo<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Zoee was two years old and enjoying her first camping trip with her family\u2014Mom and Dad and big sisters Aubri (4), Haley (11) and Cydney (13). Just an ordinary family holiday that would come to mark a critical turning point in their lives forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

On that fateful trip, little Zoee became feverish and stayed feverish for days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe would wake up with death cries at night,\u201d recalls Zoee\u2019s dad Dave Lattery. \u201cShe was in a lot of pain at night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several trips to the hospital later and Zoee was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Ninety six per cent of her blood cells were cancerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoee\u2019s treatment protocol required three years of chemotherapy and all the toxicity and long-term health risks that come with it. Enduring painful medical treatments and prolonged isolation, Zoee began to withdraw, refusing to do anything without her parents nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoee at the hospital.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But two months into Zoee\u2019s cancer treatments, her mom discovered Kids Cancer Care. Thanks to you, that summer, Zoee and Aubri were able to attend SunRise, a day camp in the city, while their older sisters Haley and Cydney went to Camp Kindle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The transformation in Zoee was remarkable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was after SunRise that Zoee started to get herself back,\u201d Dave says. \u201cAfter that camp she started to socialize again and was able to do things on her own without worrying about us being there all the time. It really changed her. She found her old self again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Buoyed by Zoee\u2019s triumphant change, the whole family attended Kids Cancer Care\u2019s<\/span> Family Camp<\/a> at<\/span> Camp Kindle<\/a> that fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFamily Camp was the most amazing experience I\u2019ve had in a long time,\u201d says Kayla. \u201cNormally, everywhere you go, you feel uncomfortable, like an outcast and an outsider. You have to explain that your daughter has leukemia and she\u2019s on chemotherapy. Then you go to a place like Camp Kindle and you see kids in treatment together and everyone is just easy and comfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Families <\/span>like the Pasciullo-Latteries typically<\/span> <\/s>spend <\/span><\/span>about<\/span> <\/span>38 per cent of their annual household income on out-of-pocket expenses during their child\u2019s cancer journey. Thanks to you, Zoee\u2019s family was able to enjoy our free, year-round Camp and Outreach programs<\/a> without worrying about their finances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese programs are things kids actually enjoy doing,” says Dave. “They’re safe, fun activities that our family probably never would have done because we just couldn\u2019t afford it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Discovering a healing community through our Camp and Outreach programs was a decisive moment in Zoee\u2019s cancer journey. It was the moment the Pasciullo-Lattery family turned the corner and Zoee got her groove back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKids Cancer Care changed our family\u2019s cancer journey because up until then it was an unhappy experience for us,\u201d says Dave. \u201cAll the other families at Camp Kindle were dealing with the same stuff and it\u2019s a lot easier to enjoy activities with people who are in the same boat and know what you\u2019re going through. There\u2019s an unspoken connection between everyone there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for making healing possible for kids like Zoee and her family. With your <\/span>support<\/span>,<\/span> we were able to help 837 happy campers find friendship and healing in a caring community that understand<\/span>s<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOn the last day of SunRise, Zoee didn\u2019t even want to come home. She ran up to me with a little boy and said, \u2018Mom! We met someone else with a port!\u2019 Then they both started showing me their chemo ports. It was amazing! I teared up. It was so beautiful.\u201d ~ Kayla Pasciullo Zoee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}