Okanagan girl’s passing highlights need to donate to B.C. Children’s Hospital

Despite it being chopped acold excessively short, Rylie Nicholls loved life.

“Even though it was a abbreviated life, she lived a precise beauteous life,” said Rylie’s ma Toni Nicholls.

The five-year-old Lake Country miss mislaid her conflict with an assertive signifier of cancer successful October 2023, 2 years aft her diagnosis.

“I was devastated,” Nicholls said. “Our lives were turned upside down.”

Little Rylie was diagnosed with Stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma and implicit the 2 years from diagnosis to her passing, spent a full of much than an full twelvemonth astatine B.C. Children’s Hospital successful Vancouver.

“We astir apt had astir 24 to 30 admissions into the hospital,” Nicholls told Global News.

Rylie received countless treatments including galore rounds of chemotherapy and radiation and underwent a bony marrow transplant.

‘It is simply a very, precise hard attraction to spell through,” Nicholls said. “It takes you astir to the brink of decease earlier it brings you backmost with the recharging of the assemblage with the caller bony marrow.”

Rylie’s communicative is conscionable 1 of many.

It’s wherefore the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation is again hosting its long-running ‘Festival of Trees’ run to rise wealth for the province’s lone pediatric hospital.

“B.C. Children’s Hospital is the lone infirmary successful the state that is dedicated exclusively to the wellness attraction needs of children and youth,” said Rita Thodos, enforcement vice-president of philanthropy for the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“There are implicit 1 cardinal kids that trust connected the services of the infirmary wrong the state and the Yukon and implicit 4,800 of them travel from the Okanagan region.”

The run kicked disconnected past week and features sponsored trees astatine some the Delta Grand Hotel successful Kelowna and the Mission Hill Winery successful West Kelowna. There are besides 2 different venues connected Vancouver Island.

People are encouraged to driblet by, ballot for their favourite histrion oregon marque a donation online each successful an effort to enactment the hospital’s captious needs.

“It could beryllium similar life-saving instrumentality that is particularly tailored towards children and youth. It could beryllium truly innovative cutting-edge probe oregon it could beryllium caller technologies that assistance supply caller healthcare options for kids,” Thodos said.

One of the trees up astatine the Grand Hotel was sponsored by the Nicholls family, featuring immoderate of Rylie’s favourite things including rainbows and unicorns and ornaments with photos of Rylie and different Okanagan children who person passed away.

“We speech … with immoderate friends that person each mislaid their kids astir however fiercely those children loved and I deliberation it’s due to the fact that they knew they were lone present for a shorter play of time,” an affectional Nicholls said.

“She (Rylie) would drawback my look and clasp it and say, I emotion you, mommy. I emotion you a cardinal jelly tots.”

They are words that volition everlastingly stay successful Nicholls’ bosom arsenic volition her daughter’s agleam grin and sassy property contempt each the hardships the small miss had to endure successful her abbreviated life.