A Family Vacation Offers Closure For A Young Cancer Survivor

By Shannon Hicks

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of being in remission from Hodgkin’s disease, 14-year old Cory Pineau and his family recently traveled to Hawaii.

The Sandy Hook family spent the week of November 6–14 in the Aloha State thanks to the Connecticut chapter of The Make-A-Wish Foundation. Cory was surprised on November 1 by his parents, brothers, and friends when they gathered at his parents’ business, Katherine’s Kitchen, for a dinner party. It was that evening that Cory learned he and his family would be leaving in less than a week for his dream vacation.

Cory knew he was going to Hawaii to celebrate being a survivor, but until that evening he had not been told the departure date.

Two weeks later, safely home following a week of seeing volcanoes, eating plenty of fresh tropical fruit, scuba diving, and just relaxing with his family, Cory sat down to talk about his vacation.

“I figured it would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” he said of his wish to fly about 5,000 miles away from home with parents Katherine and Randy, and brothers Connor, 17, and Ryan, 20.

“I wanted to see volcanoes and that was the first thing on my list I could do,” said Cory, who also went scuba diving, saw countless dolphins, tried the traditional Hawaiian dish poi, and even celebrated his birthday with a full luau during his dream vacation.

When he was 12 years old, Cory was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s, a cancer of the lymphatic system that can be treated and in most cases knocked down, but not before tough treatments of chemotherapy. Radiation therapy is also usually involved, and it was in Cory’s case.

A student at Newtown Middle School at the time, Cory managed to keep a positive attitude and maintain his public smile even as his body responded to the treatments. Friends and family were supportive, but it still took a toll on the family to watch their youngest go through the battle against a cancer of the blood.

“It was a struggle. It was a drag for him, of course, because he was the one who went through it, but to go through this as a parent, it was the most horrifying thing I’ve been through in my life,” said Katherine Pineau.

Between running their business and taking care of the rest of their family, Katherine and Randy Pineau had a lot to juggle.

“Cory’s illness came at a time when the economy was taking a dive, and businesses were hurting,” Mrs Pineau said. “Taking time away from our store to care for his illness was never questioned, though. It was expensive, and it’s something you never plan for. It just kind of takes you out at the knees.

“We were very fortunate, then and now, to have very understanding staff during everything. We had to take a lot of time off for Cory’s treatments, and then last week, when we were on vacation together, we knew the store was in good hands,” Mrs Pineau said. “That allowed us to fully enjoy the vacation. It was a worry-free trip. We got to enjoy every step of the trip, start to finish, and that wouldn’t have been possible without our staff or the Make-A-Wish people.”

Make A Wish

Children who are granted wishes through Make-A-Wish (MAW) are referred to the organization through a social worker, a nurse, or someone at the hospital where they receive their treatment for whichever life-threatening disease or condition they are being treated. Children do not have to be facing death to be granted a wish.

“One of the misconceptions is that they’re terminally ill,” said Stacey Lavelle of Sandy Hook, one of two Make-A-Wish (MAW) volunteer Wish Granters who coordinated the Pineau family vacation. “No, it’s children with life-threatening condition who are granted special wishes by Make-A-Wish.”

Ms Lavelle and Amy Ross of Monroe were the co-coordinators of Cory’s wish. The two have partnered as Wish Granters, Ms Ross said this week, for “about half a dozen wishes.” They began working with Cory and his family more than a year ago.

“We contact the family we sign up to work with, and set up a meeting with the child and their parents,” said Ms Lavelle. “They get to tell us what they want for their wish. It’s important to make sure it’s what the child wants, and not what the parents want. This is for the children.”

For MAW, said Ms Lavelle, wishes that concern trips are never a matter of “can it be done?” but “when?”

“When will the child be able to travel? That’s our first question,” said Ms Lavelle. “We’ll get the children their trips, but if a child isn’t doing well it’ll be a rush wish.”

The trip to Hawaii was Cory’s second request, in fact; his original wish had been to visit California and the set of the Nickelodeon program iCarly. There is a long waiting list for that particular trip, however, and as Cory’s health improved he began to rethink his choice.

“We reminded him he could change his mind, so we went back to the drawing board and he decided Hawaii,” said Ms Lavelle. “He wanted to see volcanoes, so we worked with the family to schedule that instead.”

“As we’re always prepared for, and flexible around, we were very open to the idea of a switch,” said Ms Ross. “We were happy to do that.”

“I made my wish when I was finishing radiation. I knew I couldn’t do anything long distance before that,” Cory said.

MAW of Connecticut is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt not-for-profit corporation. It is part of the nation’s largest wish-granting organization, with chapters and volunteers throughout the US and abroad. The Connecticut chapter alone, which is based in Trumbull, has granted more than 1,700 wishes since its founding in 1986.

Once Cory’s wish was put into motion, the Connecticut chapter began to work on the logistics, coordinating through the MAW Hawaii office. MAW covers the costs of wishes — which fall into one of four categories (“I Wish To Go…,” “I Wish To Have…,” “I Wish To Meet…” and “I Wish To Be…”) — through donations and fundraisers, which allows a family to enjoy a wish without any financial output.

There is plenty of communication between Wish Granters and the parents of a child, said Ms Ross, but the second time the MAW volunteers actually see the family is usually when the wish is actually granted. Meanwhile, MAW organizes a family’s flights, lodging and activities, and even gives the family some spending money “so they don’t have to stress about every meal, and just have some fun the whole time,” said Ms Lavelle.

Avoiding stress is exactly what the Pineaus did last month.

The Hawaii Experience

The family visited Volcano National Park, following a road around a large crater with an active volcano. They went snorkeling and scuba diving, during which Cory saw a white tipped shark, a “spiky green starfish,” he said, and even a helmet crab while under water.

“It’s a mix of being a lot of work and fully relaxed,” Cory said of scuba diving. “I’m not used to being fully underwater like that. They put weights on me so I could stay down and that felt great.”

The cancer survivor was honored during a luau that happened to fall on his birthday.

“My favorite part of that night was when the fire guy came out, juggling and spinning the sticks with fire on either end,” said Cory. “He really kicked off the show for us.”

The event included dancing and singing (Cory was serenaded for his birthday), a history lesson on the Polynesian culture, and, of course, a full meal that featured poi, kahlua pig (“like pulled pork with a very intense, smoky flavor,” said Katherine Pineau), a salsa that featured cubed raw salmon, and plenty of pineapple.

“Their pineapple is awesome,” said Cory. “It’s very juicy, nothing like what we see here.”

“They’re short, fat, and golden,” agreed his mother. “Just beautiful. Sweet and tender, and really intense in pineapple flavor.”

During their vacation, the family also spent time at a beach, they swam with a sea turtle, and did plenty of sightseeing.

“I got to do exactly what I wanted to do,” Cory said in reflection.

For Cory, his Make-A-Wish vacation “kind of finished off the sting” of learning of his illness and then going through treatment for it.

The trip, said Katherine Pineau, offered the entire family some closure.

“It put a period on the experience,” she said, her arm around her youngest son’s shoulders. “It marked the one-year anniversary of him being in remission, and it allowed us to regroup.”