A month before Isaiah Kissner turned two, the Port Coquitlam toddler started his day by vomiting.
His sickness was “out of the blue,” his mother Cassia remembered of her youngest child three years ago.
Concerned, Cassia and her husband, Jon, took their boy to the hospital, but were sent home with a diagnosis of a possible stomach flu.
A few days on, the family returned to the emergency ward — only to be turned away again.
But his illness got progressively worse: Isaiah was not walking properly and he become more lethargic.
Two weeks later, the family was back at the hospital and refused to leave until they got answers.
“It’s easy to assume he had a stomach bug but, as a parent, you know your children,” Cassia said. “Something was not right.”
The next morning, in February 2021, a CT scan revealed a tumour in Isaiah’s brain and the family began a journey to heal his cancer through medical interventions.
The first round of treatments greatly affected him physically, Cassia said. “He was not the boy that we all knew.”
For the second iteration, though, the family was ready for the medical procedures in a different way.
Through research and study, Cassia and Jon provided their son with a more holistic diet and offered alternative therapies to help him beat the disease.
He thrived, Cassia said and “it was amazing to see. We realized this [direction] was something that was lacking in the cancer care, not only for children but for adults as well.”
“For us,” she said, “it was important to share this with parents and families also going through childhood cancer and to let them know that they’re not alone.”
With the help of Hanna Rakowska, an oncology nutritionist and cancer survivor, the couple got to work to rebalance Isaiah’s body, as well as their home.
They focused on a plant-based food protocol; undertook Vitamin C IV, red light, sauna and hyperbaric oxygen therapies; and used essential and castor oils, epsom salts and supplements.
The family also cleaned their home of toxins and replaced Isaiah’s clothes with organic cotton ware.
Cassia described her son as a trooper through his medical interventions, always having a smile on his face, playing with his toy trucks and cars, and spending time with his older sister, Hannah, now seven.
The changes they were making had a difference in his health until last December, when Isaiah died before his fifth birthday.
On Saturday, Sept. 28, Cassia and Jon Kissner will host the first fundraiser for their nonprofit, Trucks of Hope, an organization they started last year — before their son passed — that’s designed to help families battling childhood cancer.
Proceeds from the Port Coquitlam event will provide starter kits, valued at about $200, to mail to Canadian families with kids going through cancer treatments.
Here’s what’s in the starter kit:
- a food guide
- created by Rakowska, for supporting optimal functioning with nutrition
- recipes
- with foods that have been shown to fight cancer
- castor oil packs
- kid-friendly essential oils
- epsom salts
- green household cleaning products
- an organic cotton toque
- a gratitude journal
Rakowska, who has a private nutrition practice called Back to Balance Nutrition, said her food guide in the kits includes “evidence-based information around the link between diet and cancer, and the optimal dietary pattern for cancer-risk reduction.”
“The food guide also includes simple, kid-friendly recipes that are centred around scientifically proven cancer-fighting foods that the whole family can enjoy,” she said.
At Saturday’s inaugural fundraiser for Trucks of Hope, which the nonprofit hopes to collect $3,000 to make the kits, there will be guest speakers, healthy food samples and door prizes for attendees.
Cassia stressed there is a need for extra help for families as only 3.8 per cent of cancer funding goes to paediatric cancer. Currently, she said, 350 kids are at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver with cancer while another 1,500 children are outpatients.
The Trucks of Hope fundraiser is from 1 to 3 p.m. at TriCity Church (2145 Nova Scotia Ave., Port Coquitlam). Entry is a minimum $10 donation.
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