From the outside, the Browns look like the typical family — mom, dad, a new home on a golf course, two young sons with another baby due in the fall, food in the fridge and cars in the garage.
Appearances can be deceiving.
For Amy and Paul Brown, they didn’t think too much of it when their three-and-a-half-year-old son Payton began complaining of aching legs shortly after Easter.
“We figured it was kind of like growing pains,” said Amy.
Two weeks later, Payton woke up one morning screaming in pain. He was given Tylenol and the family went to a barbecue at Paul’s work. In the span of an afternoon, his leg pain worsened and by the time they left, he couldn’t walk or fit into his car seat.
Amy can thank her keen intuition and innate maternal instinct for catching her son’s illness. After typing her boy’s symptoms into a medical website, she found information on leukemia.
“The only reason I had an inkling is because I went on the computer and typed in the symptoms,” she said.
An oncologist examined his platelet levels and said if Payton fell, he could bleed internally into his brain and die within minutes. The family rushed to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and was informed that their son had leukemia.
Today, he cannot walk and must be carried everywhere. He can barely play with his younger brother Austin. One of the medications he takes makes him hungry and his weight ballooned from 29 to 40 pounds in four weeks.
“He doesn’t even look like the same kid,” said Amy.
There are two types of Acute Leukemia, Myeloid and Lymphoblastic. The silver lining for Payton is he suffers from the more common and curable Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
The survival rate for children ages one to 10 with this leukemia is more than 95 per cent, their doctor told them. But this offers little comfort to the parents of a child who can’t sleep for more than two hours at a time, visits the hospital twice or more each week and has regular chemotherapy sessions.
Payton used to be very laid back and easy going. Now, he is despondent and has an attitude to match.
“He can’t do anything. He can’t go outside and play, I can’t take him to any public places… he’s absolutely miserable,” said Amy.
“How can you fix something you know you can’t fix?” asks Paul.
While there may not be an easy solution for the once jovial blond boy or his family, there is hope for the Browns — the community they live in.
“The community has completely stepped up,” said Paul.
Random strangers have caught wind of their harrowing story and phoned up the Browns, offering their time as babysitters for 20-month-old Austin when the family has to be at the hospital, neighbours have mowed their lawns and fresh food regularly shows up unexpectedly at their door.
“If there’s been any good in this situation, it’s been the fact that we’ve had a lot of people that we can rely on,” said Paul.
The family insists they are not petitioning for charity, instead, they want to focus their efforts on awareness of the cancer.
Deb Elliott co-owns The Little Gym in Airdrie and has known Payton for a year.
She has seen him transform from a “shy little boy” to a “very loving, little boy” over the past year.
“He’s grown so much in the last year, not just physically, but emotionally,” said Elliott.
On Aug. 14, Elliott will retool her gym’s open house to become a pledging station in support of Team Payton, the group who will proudly walk in support of the little boy and the fight against leukemia during Light the Night, Sept. 25.
Light the Night walks happen all over North America and participants carry balloons that light up to celebrate survivors and fighters of the deadly disease.
Paul, Amy and others will try and reach their goal of $3,000 in order to help bring awareness to leukemia in order to fight blood cancers.
For the Browns, life is day by day. If all treatments prove successful for Payton, he can reclaim his life as a normal kid in three-and-a-half years.
For Paul, it’s crucial to ensure Payton is not put in jeopardizing situations that could make him sick or relapse after he is cured.
“We only want to do this once and do it as quickly as possible.”
