Sept. 23 is a hard date for the Wetklo family. On that day in 2011, then three-year-old Lucas was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer called clear cell sarcoma.
“[Hospital staff] said, ‘You’re not going home for eight months,’ ” said his mother Karen Wetklo, who lives in Nanaimo.
Lucas underwent four rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove the kidney, six more rounds of chemo and then radiation. He responded well to the treatment and by June doctors said the tumour was gone. The Nanaimo family thought life was back to normal.
But two years to the day after the first diagnosis — Sept. 23, 2013 — the family found out the cancer was back. This time, it was a tumour behind Lucas’s cheekbone, a spot where it was impossible to operate.
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Lucas couldn’t hear out of his left ear and was having trouble opening his mouth.
A junior rider with the Tour de Rock at the time, Lucas had been set to attend the red serge dinner in Nanaimo with his family. Instead, the boy was whisked back to B.C. Children’s Hospital. Again, his radiation lasted until June.
This summer, Lucas was able to get back to the routine of childhood, building Lego masterpieces, playing with other kids on the playground.
On Monday, the Tour de Rock team rode 57 kilometres from Nanaimo, through Ladysmith and stopped in Chemainus for the red serge dinner.
When he started the day in Nanaimo, Lucas, now 6, was back to his energetic and funny self, goofing around with the riders and getting to cruise around in a police car.
During a stop at Maffeo Sutton Park, Lucas got the Tour de Rock logo painted on his right cheek.
When I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, he responded in the most logical way possible. “I don’t know, I’m only six-and-a-half.” Then he went back to playing with his toy police car.
Karen Wetklo said Lucas talks about being a police officer, a factory worker or a professional Lego builder.
The Wetklo family has received a lot of support from their church, Oceanside Church International. It’s their faith that gives them the confidence Lucas’s cancer won’t come back a third time.
“The first time around, we were given a 43 per cent chance of success,” Wetklo said. “We believe in hope no matter what you’ve been told.”
