Excerpt from Kate’s Story

8:45 a.m. August 11, 1993

Kate Sawford stands outside the operating room, poised to take her last walk on two legs. A blue hospital gown hangs from her thin frame. Her bald head shines in the fluorescent light.

In a few minutes she will walk through the doors, lie down on a table, and drift off to sleep. When she wakes up eight hours later, the tumour in her left leg will be gone.

So will her knee and most of her thigh.

In these final moments before her amputation, Kate stares silently past her intravenous pole to the entrance. She clutches her teddy bear.

A nurse arrives to usher her into the operating room. She grabs Kate’s pole and they walk in together.

Standing a few feet away, Kate’s mom watches her eleven-year-old daughter disappear through the doors. It’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to witness. She’s done everything to prepare for this –poring through medical textbooks; grilling doctors about the operation; talking to amputees.

She knows that in the next few hours a surgeon will remove her daughter’s knee and part of her thigh. He will reattach Kate’s calf backwards. When he is done, her ankle will replace her knee. Her toes will stick out behind her.

Kate’s mom drags her eyes away from the operating room doors. She turns around and walks to the waiting room.

The book and CD are about a Dundas, Ont. girl named Kate Sawford whose life changed dramatically the day she found out she had Ewing Sarcoma.

Hamilton photojournalist Cathie Coward and I chronicled the struggles Kate and her family faced during her treatment – aggressive chemotherapy, and finally amputation and prosthesis. Kate’s Story has been used in hospitals to give families insight into what it means to have a child diagnosed with cancer.

Happily, the story ends well. Kate is now a healthy and vital young woman working as a veterinarian.