Four-year-old Willy Boylett doesn’t get many choices when he’s in hospital fighting cancer, but last month he was treated to a day that was all about him.
Willy was the recipient of a ‘Dream Day’ – an initiative from Lifetime to provide a meaningful experience to a family who has a child affected by a health condition or disability.
Willy was diagnosed with neuroblastoma earlier this year, a type of cancer that starts in early nerve cells but has since spread to his bones.
He is six months into treatment, with another six to nine months to go, and mum Sarah Kerby says the day was a welcome break for the family.
Sarah was approached by the local Dream Day coordinator and says she chose to keep the day a surprise in case Willy’s health wasn’t up to it on the day.
“I started asking questions like ‘if you could do anything for a day what would it be?’
“The first thing he said was he wanted to go and stay in a DoC hut.”
After some prodding Willy eventually decided his dream day would involve going to the snow and seeing lots of dogs.
So, last month they pulled into a Christchurch carpark. Willy and his brother Baillie, along with Sarah and partner Sam, began the day of Willy’s dreams.
It started by each selecting their favourite-coloured Ferrari to individually be driven to the Antarctic Centre in, followed by a special behind the scenes encounter with a penguin.
Senior constable Gary Donnelly then picked Willy up and took him to the police dog base where he got a tour, met detector dog Rivet, then got front-row seats as constable Michael Lamb showed off what the dogs could do.
Gary says it is always a pleasure to help families like Willy’s.
“They’re going through a lot, so if we can provide a bit of joy for them, it’s easy,” he says. “Willy chatted all the way in the car and we’d never even met before – he’s a cool kid.”
Sarah says it didn’t take long for Willy to realise he was in control of the day and fall into the position of ‘boss’.
“Willy relished being in charge, he repeated multiple times ‘I am the boss in charge of today’, just seeing his willingness to jump in the car and have a chat and communicate with adults, I was really impressed.
“It’s interesting, in hospital Willy really doesn’t have any choices, so to have a day that was all about him it was really special for him, and all of us.”
Before leaving, the boys were presented with some goodies, including a police dog soft toy that Willy proudly named ‘Griff’, after which they headed off to the local fire station.
Willy was unexpectedly back home in Nelson last week after an asymptomatic Covid-19 test.
“He was meant to have his big operation to cut his tumour out on Tuesday, they tested him routinely for Covid, which turned up positive, he doesn’t have any symptoms but we’re home isolating,” Sarah says.
Willy will have to wait at least a month for the operation, so will instead begin another round of chemotherapy.
“We found out last week that the tumour has shrunk by half, so given that we were given a 50/50 chance of survival, the prognosis is looking good.”
Willy has amassed a whopping 315 beads on his Beads of Courage necklace so far.
He receives one bead for each procedure or milestone, or sometimes a bead to cover the whole day, which can include things like having multiple injections on the same day.
“Some of the beads are called courage beads, you get those at times when you’ve been really strong,” Sarah says.
“The first one he got was the day after he had his nose tube installed, I accidentally ripped it out when I was helping him to the toilet, it had just been the most upsetting thing for him to have in and for me to do that… He chose a monster bead so now every time I look at it I’m reminded of the time I was a monster, but there’s also nice reminders of when he was just so strong and resilient.”
Willy will head back to Christchurch to continue treatment when able but will now carry with him treasured memories from his Dream Day.
To donate to Willy’s family as they go through the year of treatment visit givealittle.
