Last month's fundraiser benefiting the family of a little boy battling a terminal brain tumour raised close to $5,000.
The BC Ferry Health Wellness Fundraiser held on June 24 at Memorial Park in Ladner raised $4,920.90 for six-year-old Javan Welfing and his family.
Javan is battling diffuse intrinsic potine giloma (DIPG) - a rare inoperable tumour that grows in the brain stem.
DIPG usually only strikes young children - between the ages of four and 10 - and most die within a year. Because of the location and the nature of DIPG tumours, surgery is not an option; the disease is mostly resistant to traditional chemotherapy and other treatments.
He was diagnosed just before Christmas last year.
Dad Tim Welfing, a BC Ferries engineer, said that he and wife Cami noticed that the muscles in Javan's face weren't always working properly. Initially they were not too concerned, he said, but brought it up at a routine doctor's appointment. That's when everything changed. Javan was immediately sent to the emergency room in Victoria for a CAT scan and then airlifted to B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver.
There the family received the devastating diagnosis.
Javan completed an initial round of radiation and chemotherapy at the end of February and is currently undergoing maintenance chemo every six weeks.
He has lost a significant amount of weight and does not have much energy now, but on the day of the fundraiser Javan was happy and jumping up and down.
Last month's fundraiser, was organized by fellow BC Ferries employees Erika Brockhausen and Sue McBain, who both live in Tsawwassen.
Donations can also be made through a TD Canada Trust account set up for the family, through account number 057406364149.
