William Smith

William is tender-hearted, thoughtful, mature, resilient, and a gentle soul. He loves swimming, playing soccer, Lego, and Squishmallows. William is the 8-year-old son of Sharilyn and Geoff and brother to Charlotte and Harrison. He is currently in grade 3 French immersion at Nelson Rural School. His favourite classes are math, gym, and library time. William loves going to school every day and says his favourite place to be is “home”. If he could travel anywhere in the world, he would go to Disney World.

On September 21, 2023, three weeks into first grade, William was diagnosed with B Cell ALL and our lives were truly turned upside down. We had an amazing summer outdoors but noticed at the end of August that William seemed to tire easily at the beach and on bike rides. We made an appointment with our family doctor the beginning of September, thinking perhaps his iron was low. Although William didn’t have any other obvious symptoms aside from fatigue, our family doctor was thorough and trusted our instincts as parents that something was just not quite right. William had bloodwork for the first time early in the morning on September 21, 2023 at our home hospital and by 10 o’clock that evening we were at the IWK where an oncologist told us our precious boy had leukemia. We were devastated.

Three days later William began treatment, and our eyes were opened to a world that we had lived in blissful ignorance of – childhood cancer. It’s painful to return to the early days following William’s diagnosis and impossibly difficult to describe the 2.5-year experience of treatment in words. There was so much time spent away from home, siblings, and friends. A deep grief for the lost moments together and childhood experiences that didn’t get to be realized. Even though he didn’t always understand what was happening, William took every procedure and treatment in stride and faced leukemia with courage, bravery and optimism. He overcame many setbacks and complications and dealt with hospitalizations, disappointments, and frustrations with a maturity far beyond his years.

Cancer is truly a family disease, childhood cancer in particular. We truly learned the meaning of the phrase “it takes a village” because our village carried us through the most difficult experience of our lives. William’s uncle was waiting for us at the IWK when we arrived that first day and from then on, we were never without the support of our family a single day in hospital. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins kept our spirits bright, allowed us to have moments of renewal away from the hospital, and advocated for us and asked questions when we were too overwhelmed to do it ourselves. They cared for William’s siblings when we couldn’t be in two places at once as parents. Our extended families and community continuously sent messages, prayers, meals, gifts, and even organized a benefit. It was so beautifully overwhelming to be on the receiving end of kindness of such magnitude.

Having support and knowing you don’t have to carry heavy burdens alone is an immense gift, especially when facing childhood cancer. It gives you the courage and the strength to face challenges together with grit and optimism. It is so important to us, as a family, to support Light the Night(R) to give back to the communities who helped guide us through our darkest days and allowed us to remain grateful and hopeful every step of the way.