SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Camden Kingyens and his family are back home.
Camden, who just turned four years old, recently completed 30 proton therapy treatments in Boston as he continues his treatment against medulloblastoma, the most common type of brain cancer in children.
Camden’s mother, Victoria, told The Guardian in a phone interview Friday morning that Camden’s doctors in Boston were in disbelief with how well he tolerated the radiation treatments.
“He flew through radiation like it was nothing,” said Victoria. “He is doing extremely well and there are no major short-term side effects from the radiation besides a little bit of fatigue.
“He’s starting to walk again and pretty much running and he hasn’t done that for six months. That’s a really big milestone that we hit while we were in Boston.”
The Kingyens family travelled from Boston to Halifax, N.S., where Camden had a central line used for treatments removed at the IWK Health Centre on Thursday. They travelled back to P.E.I. on Friday.
Now the family plays the waiting game.
Camden will undergo an MRI six weeks following his last radiation, which will be around the third week of October, to determine how successful the treatments in Boston were.
“He will get a full MRI and we’ll be able to see if he gets his first cancer-free scan,” said Victoria. “He has not had any clear scans as of yet and we are hoping this will be the first.”
From January to June, Camden had three rounds of advanced chemo and two high-dose rounds in Toronto before going to Boston for six weeks of proton radiation. Victoria said everybody was pleased with how well Camden got along in Boston.
“Camden was so up and down from January until April, May,” said Victoria. “He had a lot of issues with his infections and things like that when he was taking his chemotherapy.
“To have this two-month period where he was having a very aggressive treatment of radiation, but he was thriving otherwise, it was great for all of us.”
The entire Kingyens family, including seven-year-old Nate and Dad Matt, were together in Boston for the entire nine weeks.
Victoria said it’s hard for she and Matt to put into words what the support they have received in recent months means. She added the financial support has been overwhelming.
“All the thoughts, prayers, messages have been so encouraging and so uplifting for us, especially when we were going through the harder times with Camden,” said Victoria. “We do have a very long list of people we would like to thank and I have no idea how we are going to get to do that. There are just so many people that have stepped up. It has been amazing and we are so grateful.”
'Welcome Home Parade'
A special ‘Welcome Home Parade’ is planned for Camden Kingyens and his family on Sunday.
Although the family will be in isolation, the public is invited to drive by the family home at 229 Gunning Shore Rd. between 2 and 3 p.m.
“We have not told the boys yet and we think they’ll be excited and think it’s pretty cool,” said Victoria Kingyens. “We think it's a pretty awesome way to be welcomed home and to be able to wave at all our family and friends, from a distance. It will be nice because we haven’t seen anybody for so long.”
