It all started about three weeks ago, when Peter Dooley picked Isabella up from daycare. She was not her usual playful two-year-old self.
In the past she had complained of pains, but the doctor had said it was “just growing pains.”
By the evening both parents knew something was terribly wrong. Rebekah (Barnum) Dooley made the appointment, and a week later came the diagnosis: neuroblastoma — cancer in the adrenal glands that had also spread to bones and bone marrow.
The prognosis is at least a year of treatments — chemo, radiation, surgery and then more chemo. Isabella is being treated in Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where Rebekah and Peter Dooley live. Isabella has endured the first set of chemo treatments and was discharged on Nov. 17.
Both parents grew up on the Sunshine Coast, Rebekah attending Cedar Grove and Elphinstone Secondary schools and Peter attending Gibsons Elementary and New Life Assembly Christian School. After getting married in Gibsons, Peter and Rebekah were volunteer youth group workers at CTK in Gibsons.
Rebekah and Peter have felt the support of their many friends and family since this ordeal started. They appreciate the prayers and well wishes they have received.
A trust fund has been set up to help the family at a local bank. Contact Trudy Ruck at 604-886-9792 for the banking information to make a donation.
