Hope for the holidays
It truly was a Christmas miracle. Shortly before the holidays last year, the Mathia family received the best gift they could have asked for. Their daughter, Danielle, was getting the double lung transplant she so desperately needed to survive.
Soon after the birth of their first child, a daughter they named Danielle, Diane and Phil realized something wasn’t quite right.Danielle was not gaining weight, she was ravenously hungry but could not digest her food, she had a persistent cough, and when Diane leaned in to kiss her baby, she noticed Danielle’s skin had a salty taste. By the time she was six-months-old, Danielle was still the size of a newborn. That’s when her failure to thrive was diagnosed as cystic fibrosis.
Danielle struggled with the things that the rest of us take for granted. Breathing, eating and walking were a daily struggle. Infections, one after the other, could turn a common cold into an uncommon ordeal, leaving her bedridden for weeks. These infections wreaked havoc on Danielle’s respiratory system, scarring internal tissue and resulting in a lobectomy, a surgical procedure to remove a lobe of her lung, when she was six-years-old.
By November 2012, 12-year-old Danielle’s condition was deteriorating. She needed new lungs and was placed on the organ transplant list. Weeks turned into months as the family waited. Then, several months later, their prayers were answered. They got the call they had been waiting for. Danielle was getting her new lungs.
Phil and Danielle - 2014 SickKids Commercial
Meet Danielle, who was one of our amazing kids featured in our 2014 Brand Campaign. She and her family shared real-life moments on their road to recovery.
After years of uncertainty, Danielle went home for Christmas with new lungs in her body and new hope in her heart─hope that the worst was now behind her.
“We were so excited to have the entire family back under one roof and go about our normal routines, like having dinner or watching movies together,” says Phil. “The ultimate gift was having the whole family home.”
Soon after Danielle returned to school this past January, she began experiencing blurred vision. Test results revealed crushing news. Danielle had a rare type of cancer that some transplant recipients develop, called post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). The cancer was in her central nervous system, lung, lymph nodes and brain.
This Christmas, as most of us are curled up at home surrounded by family and friends, Danielle and her family will be at SickKids where she continues to undergo chemotherapy. Despite what she has been through, Danielle’s sunny spirit shines through, brighter than a million holiday twinkle lights. Now one of the 363 children diagnosed with cancer at SickKids each year, she wanted to give back to the place that has become like her second home. So, this fall she is featured in SickKids marketing campaign.
"The ultimate gift was having the whole family home."
The most ambitious in the hospital’s history, the campaign, called ‘Better Tomorrows’ includes 45 videos, each 30 seconds long (a different one airing each day between November 10 and December 21) featuring real patients and staff. The campaign hopes to encourage the community to “help make their tomorrow as good as your today.” Danielle’s video shows her Dad sleeping next to her hospital bed. Her parents haven’t left her side since she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Danielle is optimistic about the future. “One day I would like to start my own doggie daycare business,” she says. Danielle’s parents surprised her with two puppies for Christmas last year following her transplant. “I feel energized and hopeful now that I have my new lungs and I’m ready to pursue new things.”
To view other videos from the campaign or to make a donation, visit sickkidsfoundation.com/together.
