DANIEL CAUDLE

News Record

Mikayla Ansley’s bilateral retinoblastoma has left her blind in one eye and with diminished vision in the other.

But that hasn’t stopped the 12-year-old Blyth girl from receiving accolades from around the world for her inspiring essay, entitled “Kindness Matters.”

Earlier this year, Mikayla submitted the essay to the Lions Club’s International District A9 peace essay contest. After winning the local level, she was subsequently named Multiple District A winner, which takes in Ontario and Québec. Mikayla’s essay went on to receive farther praise and captured the attention of Lions Clubs International’s Multiple District A contest. That gave her the opportunity to have the essay represented on the world stage in Italy later this year.

In late March, however, Mikayla read her essay at the United Nations and accepted a $5,000 prize.

She never dreamed her essay would take her all the way to Manhattan. But now a day has been named in her honour. April 14 was Mikayla Ansley Day.

The pre-teen received praises and admiration from local groups and politicians including Minister of Education and MPP Lisa Thompson, MP Ben Lobb and North Huron council members including Reeve Bernie Bailey

Thompson said she is proud to be from Blyth, a community that has produced a 12-year-old essayist who the education minister believes has a bright future ahead of her.

Kindness – which Mikayla said everyone should practice – was being acknowledged even during her special day. She asked those who attended her award ceremony to bring a food item, to be donated to the local food bank.

In her essay, Mikayla highlighted the kindness she received from the community during her battle with cancer when both her parents quit their jobs.

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Mikayla’s essay is reprinted as follows:

“Kindness is a simple but powerful thing. It can be as small as a smile or a wave, or as big as sponsoring a child. Even if you don’t realize that you are doing it, that can still make someone’s day. Kindness matters more than you think.

“My name is Mikayla and I have been legally blind since the age of two. I had a rare cancer called bilateral retinoblastomoa, which is a cancer that affects both of the eyes. Because of that cancer I had to lose my left eye and lost most of my vision in my right eye. It was this tragedy that taught me the lifeline of kindness. How to be thankful for what I have instead of wanting more.

“During my cancer journey, my parents had to quit their jobs and be at the hospital with me all the time. I’m so thankful to all the people who held our hands through it all, by donating toys, blankets and money so that this family could stay on our feet.

“It is because of that experience I am on a mission to change the world with kindness, by helping others through their dark times like they helped me through my cancer. In the past, I have written a letter to the minister of Australia in hopes I would change his decision of not allowing the refugees in to his country. Taking their sanitation, food and water away from the refugee camps so that they would leave his country is intolerable. Hopefully my letter was the smallest bit of a difference, people like that need to change.

“Also I organized a fundraiser at my school, to buy teddy bears for the orphan and abandoned children in Haiti. Because I believe every child deserves something to hold on to and love.

“I know that the world needs more of that kindness, to live in peace and friendship, without war or abuse. For everyone to believe they are truly safe and happy. Sometimes life can be tough and you might feel like the whole world is against you, believe me as a stubborn legally blind girl it has happened more than once.

“If you just keep being kind to one another, it can make yours and everyone’s world brighter. If the whole world was filled with smiles and laughter, everything would be great.

“One day everyone will believe in their hearts, that kindness really truly matters.”