Listed in Memorials
Forever In Our HeartsTheresa Ann DonnellyWe just can’t believe that our darling Gizzy is gone. About eight years ago Gizzy was feeling unwell and went to a local hospital where she was diagnosed as having broken ribs and sent home. The illness persisted and she went to Sunnybrook where her leukaemia was diagnosed, she was told she needed a bone marrow transplant but that the Toronto hospitals were too busy to take her. Through the persistence of her mom, she discovered that there was a new cancer centre in Hamilton which was happy to take her and a distinguished professor of medicine, Dr Walker who would look after her. Dr Walker sourced a donor in Germany and performed the bone marrow transplant. Gizzy had a rare condition known as the Philadelphia chromosome and to our horror she relapsed. Dr Walker performed a bone marrow graft which was the state of the art procedure. Tragically the leukaemia came back a third time. We lost our Gizzy in the early hours of Wednesday morning at Juravinski Cancer Centre while she was waiting for a Car-T cell treatment, the latest miracle cure for leukaemia. Throughout her battle with cancer, Vera devoted herself untiringly and selflessly to looking after Gizzy. Constantly searching for the best drugs and paying for them when the government refused to pay, finding a hospital to look after Gizzy when the Toronto hospitals would not, finding a hospital to do the Car-T treatment in the US when the Canadian hospitals where unable to do it, arranging a mortgage to borrow the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the treatment when, after weeks of delay, the Ontario government refused to fund the treatment. No mother could have done more for her child’s care than Vera did for Gizzy. Gizzy was an incredible girl who was struck down by a catastrophic disease in the prime of her youth. If anyone had the right to be bitter and angry at the world, it was Gizzy, instead she was cheerful, kind, considerate, caring and giving until the day she died, a joy to all of us who loved her so much and an ongoing source of inspiration for the rest of our lives. Gizzy found faith a few weeks before she died so we know she is in heaven away from the excruciating pain and suffering of the last eight years. I’m sure Gizzy would want to thank Dr Walker for his world leading skill and loving care which prolonged her life by so many years, her father Brendan, Christina and family, her incredibly kind and devoted friend Rob Léger and above all her mom, who loved her like no other mother could and gave her all for her Gizzy and who Gizzy loved with all her heart.Theresa Ann DonnellyFuneral ServiceMcEachnie Funeral Home ChapelEvent Times7/4/2018 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
