Page 15 - MIN VOS 29 JULY 2015
P. 15
Neshannock teen
BATTLING ILLNESS
gets adventure in
Aruba
IGNORING her mother Cheryl, her stomach. work, “But
who, across the natural pool shouted and it’s nice to have everyone else on the trip especially, it was so nice to
warnings at her, the Neshannock WISH GRANTED thinking it now, too.” see her smile.” Cheryl said.
Township teen decided she had to jump Autumn’s trip was approved by Make- Cheryl said her faith in God has
into Aruba’s famed Cura di Tortuga. A-Wish, which grants wishes to sustained her hope for her daughter this Autumn said now that her Make-A-
“I was standing there, watching her, children between the ages of 2 1/2 far, and she got further confirmation of Wish trip is over; she hopes to seek out
and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s going and 18 years old and who have a life- that hope while Autumn and her brother new adventures.
to jump,’” Cheryl Paolini said, recalling threatening medical condition. walked through a peace labyrinth at “After traveling to a new place, it makes
one of the more dramatic moments Autumn, her parents and her brother, the Alta Vista chapel in Aruba. “For the you think that there are so many great
of Autumn’s Make-A-Wish trip to the Jordan left for the six-day trip to last year, I’ve gotten used to seeing her things in the world,” Autumn said. “I
Caribbean Island in June. “As her Aruba on June 15. While they were tired eyes and sadness,” she continued. want to go to explore them all.”
mother and a nurse, I kept thinking there, they visited beaches and the
about the shunt in her brain. I was natural pool, rode a water taxi, went
scared.” to the spa, and took an ATV tour over
the island’s bumpy roads.
After flashing her mother a thumbs up,
Autumn who in the spring of 2014 was The highlight of the trip for Autumn
diagnosed with a pilocytic astrocytoma, was her visit with Werner J. Bertsch,
a Stage 1 brain tumor about the size of a landscape photographer known
an egg took the leap and plunged into for his pictures of the Caribbean
the salty waters. island. He taught her how to use the
“She was freaking out, but it wasn’t new Canon camera she received from
that high,” Autumn said, “and I had to Make-A-Wish and gave her tips while
jump. If people asked me if I jumped at she took pictures there.
the natural pool in Aruba, I had to tell “I loved seeing Aruba with him; it was
them that I did it. “Because life’s an amazing to see what he did,” Autumn
adventure.” said. “He took us to the chapel — Alta
Vista — which means tall view and
WISH FOR ARUBA you could see the whole entire island,
Autumn’s adventure began early the water, the town, the desert plants.
this year, after her mother’s cousin It was just amazing.”
nominated her for a wish through Make-
A-Wish Greater Pennsylvania and West ADVENTURES AHEAD
Virginia. It had been nearly a year since Although the trip to Aruba was full
the Neshannock High School student of adventure, Autumn still faced the
was diagnosed with her benign brain realities of her illness during her days
tumor, and during that time, she had there.
undergone a number of surgeries and Just days before she left, Autumn
intravenous chemotherapy treatments. began taking a chemotherapy pill
“This year has been really tough for twice a day as a part of a two-year
her,” said Cheryl. “They told us that clinical trial being conducted at
the chemo wouldn’t shrink the tumor, Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
but it would keep it from growing, but Autumn’s mom explained that the
it didn’t. In fact, the tumor not only drugs have their side effects and that
continued to grow, but it secreted fluid, these occasionally made Autumn feel
forcing doctors to place a shunt in her uncomfortable during her stay.
brain at the site of the tumor. The fluids
drained into her stomach, and when her “With the new clinical trial, everyone is
stomach failed to absorb the proteins in excited that it’s going to work, and it’s
the fluid, doctors were forced to drain lifting me up too. I know it’s going to
10 LOCAL Wednesday, July 29 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER
