GRANDE PRAIRIE

It started out as a limp three weeks ago, just your average childhood bump or scrape, thought parents Sarah and Matthew Hoglund. But when the limp worsened, they knew something was seriously wrong with their three-year-old daughter Hadlie.

“Instead of just limping, her leg would just give out so she could be standing and then it would almost hyperextend and so then we thought it was more serious,” said Matthew.

Sarah took her daughter for X-rays, which turned up nothing. Shortly after that, Hoglund witnessed something that terrified him.

“We were pushing her in the swing (at the park). I was facing her and Sarah’s mom was pushing her from the back and we were playing high-five so when she would come up, we’d high-five but then she just stopped,” he said. “It looked like she was either on the verge of passing out or having a seizure… just the expression on her face… it was horrifying.”

Hadlie made a second trip to the hospital where she was underwent a head CT scan. The scan detected a three-centimetre growth on her brain stem. Sarah and her daughter were immediately flown to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.

The growth is a DIPG tumor, cancer. The Hoglunds said the doctor told them there were four stages and Hadlie in in the third, aggressive stage. Because of the location of the tumor, doctors are unable to operate.

“They don’t want to even do a biopsy because it’s in the brain stem, that’s where everything is, everything that controls your entire body goes through the brain stem and because of the nature of the tumor… it’s grown in through the tissues and it’s in the middle of her brainstem so even just doing the biopsy is too risky,” said Sarah.

Hadlie’s condition was deemed terminal, leaving her with a few months, maybe a year with her family. Hadlie will be able to have radiation therapy but that will only delay the growth of the tumor.

“It’s devastating. It’s like a bad dream you can’t wake up out of,” said Sarah.

Although the news was a harsh blow for the family, Matthew decided to take action to make sure his little girl has as many fun-filled memories as possible while she’s still able to.

He took to social media, Facebook and fundraising website Indiegogo.com, asking for help from his friends, family and the community to make Hadlie’s every wish come true.

“What we plan to do is wake up every day, walk into her room and ask her what do you want to do today and fulfill every sentence that comes out of her mouth, whether it’s go golfing, whether it’s go to a new park or whatever, that’s what we’re going to do,” said Matthew. “We just want her to smile every day and we’re going to take advantage of every day, we’re not going to waste anything.”

There are many things the couple would like to do as a family while they can. But ultimately they plan to make as much use of the time they have together.

“My goal is to make Christmas and then the next goal is to get to March and watch her turn four,” he said. “Anything after that will be an absolute bonus.”

Since starting the fundraiser for his daughter, people from all over the region, country and even outside of Canada have come together to help raise $59,173 as of Sunday afternoon.

“It just took off like crazy,” he said. “It went beyond what either of us had ever expected.”

The Make-a-Wish Foundation also stepped forward, providing Hadlie and her family a trip to Disneyland later this week. After the trip, Hadlie will begin her radiation treatment.

Hoglund said he wants to express his gratitude to everyone who had made a contribution.

“It’s just amazing,” he said. “The strength that we got from that, I think, was phenomenal, just because it kind of gives you that sense of something special is happening and maybe that will transition over to Hadlie and something special will happen.”

Updates on Hadlie’s condition, and all her wish list items as they are fulfilled will be documented on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hadliesbucketlist.

The family also said whatever funds are left when Hadlie passes away will be donated to an organization who helped care for their daughter, such as the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

To learn more about Hadlie’s story or to make a donation, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hadlie-s-bucket-list#pledges.