Three-year-old Blake Bellavance of Sylvan Lake is starting radiation in September to treat a cancerous brain tumor doctors discovered this summer. (Jennifer Moborg)

By Sheldon Spackman

Community Support

Aunt hoping for community support for three-year-old nephew battling brain tumor

Aug 3, 2019 | 10:12 AM

A family is hoping their fellow central Albertans will rally in support of a three-year-old Sylvan Lake boy battling a cancerous brain tumor.

According to his aunt Jennifer Moborg, Blake Bellavance’s ordeal began June 8 when his parents Jory and Shannon took him to the doctor in Sylvan Lake with a suspected ear infection.

“He got worse really quickly, so it went from ear infection to swollen lymph nodes, to not being able to move his neck, to having troubles walking and then vomiting, but then he’d be better,” says Moborg. “They thought they would just do some normal antibiotics, but that wasn’t working. Then they started checking his white blood cells and they were high.”

As a result, Blake was sent to Red Deer Regional Hospital where he spent about a week on IV antibiotics to reduce his white blood cell count.

“It seemed like anytime the doctor came in, he wouldn’t complain that his head hurt or anything like that,” recalls Moborg.

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“But he kept pointing to one spot on his head, saying my head hurts right here and for a three-year-old, I guess his parents knew that something wasn’t right. After a week in Red Deer, they sent him to Calgary’s children’s hospital and then they added different antibiotics. Everybody thought it was going to be this nasty ear infection.”

However, Moborg says Blake’s pain on the right side of his head continued to be an issue.

“His eye, there must have been a lot of pressure there because he ended up having a grapefruit-sized tumour on the right side of his brain,” says Moborg.

“They noticed it on the CT scan, then he was at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and they decided to do the surgery. It all happened really quickly. The surgery was successful, but they couldn’t get five per cent of the tumour out as it’s down in the sinuses near major blood vessels.”

Moborg says Blake’s tumor is curable but will now need to be treated with radiation five days a week for six weeks, starting in September.

“He’ll be sedated every time for his radiation,” says Moborg. “If that doesn’t work, they’ll have to determine another course of action, which I guess there are other treatments in the States, but we’re not sure about that yet. We still have several appointments with oncologists coming up this week.”

Blake’s radiation treatments will be in Calgary where she hopes the family can stay at a Ronald McDonald House or somewhere they can all be together.

On July 18, Moborg launched a GoFundMe campaign for her brother and his family, hoping to raise about $5000. Since then, the campaign has collected more than $17,250 from over 127 donors.

Moborg concludes, “It definitely makes you treat your kids a little more like precious cargo because you never know what could happen today or tomorrow.”

An online auction to support Blake Bellavance and his family will start at 8 a.m. on Aug. 6 and run until 8 p.m. on Aug. 9.

For more information, visit the Facebook page, Brave Like Blake – Online Auction to Support the Bellavance Family.