Nine-year-old Paxton Carroll is a big fan of nature shows. Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls is one of his favourites, where Grylls is left out in the wilderness and uses his skills to find his way back into civilization.
“He shows you how to survive in the wild with the essentials you need. He doesn’t need a tent or anything like that,” said Carroll.
Thanks to the Children’s Wish Foundation, Carroll and his family will be getting to go on their own adventure this year to Hawaii to see one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
Sitting next to mom Angela Schmidt, Carroll described his interest in obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass that occurs when the lava cools.
“It is basically when water and metal meet. I have snowflake obsidian downstairs in my room,” exclaimed Carroll.
In February of 2013, Carroll was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma. Schmidt said it is a rare cancer, but also the fastest growing cancer in humans.
Carroll has a sporadic version of the cancer, which his mother said is typically found in young children and almost never caught until stage three. Carroll had stage four, with almost three-dozen tumors and 80 per cent bone marrow involvement.
On Feb. 22, Schmidt took her son into urgent care at around 2 p.m. where they found a mass on his neck, and by the next morning at 10:30 a.m. they told her that Paxton had cancer. By 9 a.m. the next morning, he was in surgery and received his first dose of chemotherapy that night.
It was a lot to take in 36 hours.
“Having him go through cancer treatment was a challenge. His energy was down and he was still wanting to go and ride his bike or put on his roller blades,” Schmidt said. “He handles it beautifully and I think it’s the age. It’s the parents that struggle with it after.”
Meeting Carroll, it’s easy to see the energy Schmidt talked about. He is eager to play with the family’s dogs, show his extensive Pokémon collection and talk about his Karate classes – he’s a yellow belt.
“I’m a daredevil. I’ll do anything first try,” Carroll said, smiling at his mom. “Bungee jumping, I’ll go do that next.”
Carroll has been out of treatment since August of 2013, and other than a couple of scares here and there, Schmidt said he is doing great.
“Even though it is a very fast growing cancer, as long as it isn’t in the central nervous system (CNS) you have an 80 to 90 per cent chance to get past it. It wasn’t, thankfully, in his CNS, so that was a big thing. It may be aggressive, but if it is going to respond to chemo, it responds very well, because they have to hit it so hard,” she explained.
Now they go in every three months for checkups, which will eventually go to six months and he will be monitored until he is 18.
The trip to Hawaii has become something for the family to look forward to, and Schmidt said that they have also taken his diagnosis day and turned it into a family fun day, last year visiting Banff.
“We just try to do things to change those memories so we can go there and say ‘look at where we’ve come from and how sick we were and how much better we are now’,” she said.
Carroll was also named the ambassador for this year’s seventh annual Kimmett Cup, and proudly wears his bright red Kimmett Cup jersey during the interview.
Besides being the ambassador, he also played on the ‘Rebels WITH a cause’ team made up of Children’s Wish staff and children. He also had a painting auctioned off at the event.
As of Jan. 21, the event raised $16,000 for Helping Families Handle Cancer and $107,000 for the Children’s Wish Foundation to continue to help kids like Carroll fulfill their wishes.
