FINDING YOUR
Inner Strength
About Team Nicky
ADVOCATE - EDUCATE - SUPPORT
Providing support and community to families facing pediatric cancers and blood disorders, Team Nicky offers a safe landing spot for families in their greatest time of need.
Nicky’s Story
The chances of Nicky who was 12 years old at the time receiving the diagnosis he did was 0.3 in 1 million. That is the only statistic that we found interesting in 2021. The rest of the numbers were unimportant to Nicholas because as a patient at BC Children’s Hospital they treat each diagnosis individually and with the best research and science available from around the globe.
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We left the science to the doctors and trusted our team while advocating for positivity and magic along the way. Nicky would tell you that although he went through course after course of treatment (13 rounds of chemo including high dose, a stem cell transplant and 19 procedures, liver ablation therapy and 3 weeks of radiation) and having complications along the way it really makes a difference to have the lens of presence while enduring this. Allowing yourself to see everything (even when it feels like it’s stepping backwards) as a step towards the outcome that you wish for. It is the only way to get through.
Fear is the opposite of love, therefore lead all your actions and reactions with love. Don’t google your statistics because those are based on someone else, not you. You can do the impossible, especially if you have your friends and community to help you. If you can’t find them at that moment, it is our hope that Team Nicky can be your community and team.
Nicky is considered cured and is back at school and learning how to be human all over again. We’re so lucky that for the last two and a half years Nick get’s to heal and enjoy life again with his little brother and cousins. And of course his besties.
He is committed to making a difference on T8 - Having led the effort to form the Team Nicky Chair of Oncology, Hematology, Blood & Marrow Transplant at BC Children’s Hospital by raising $5 million dollars. These funds are banked and will not be touched. The interest made will be used at the discretion of the Chair, to allow for the development of proactive, preventive, and cutting edge treatments with an emphasis on compassion. The Team Nicky Chair is to be the voice for the patients in the oncology ward, those undergoing the clinical and bedside treatments to ensure we are one step ahead of whatever is needed by whoever walks through our hospitals doors.
Ways to Support Team Nicky
The Team Nicky Hospital Chair in Hematology, Oncology, and Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) at BC Children’s Hospital provides annual funding in support of innovative care, people, technology, equipment and clinical research that will drive advances in pediatric cancer care.
Meet Kelly Cannon
When Kelly’s 12-year-old son, Nicky, was diagnosed with an improbable form of cancer—a diagnosis so rare he stood a better chance of being struck by lightning three times—her world unraveled into crisis. Kelly’s story offers a candid glimpse into the profound impact a strike like this can have on a family’s foundation. With raw, unfiltered sincerity, from the heart of a mother who will do anything it takes to save her child’s life, Kelly guides us through the challenges of her strained marriage, the seismic impact of medical treatments, the agonizing daily decisions we all face when life is on the line, and the magic we can discover when our heartbreak is wrapped in hope, our grief, held by gratitude, and our pain, finally transformed into purpose.
WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES YOUR CHILD
And how finding the magic in everyday life will get you through the storm.
By Kelly Cannon
“This book is essential reading for any family faced with the worst news.”
- Sophie Lui, News Anchor