HARRISTON – The Orangeville Vikings U11 boys hockey team will be playing in Harriston this weekend to raise funds for a local girl with cancer.
Skylar Beuhler, 10, was camping with her family in the summer when she awoke with severe pain in her back.
Her mother, Kayli, had noticed some bruising on her body and thought her daughter may be anemic.
She planned to arrange an appointment the next week with a doctor but the Beuhlers didn’t make it that far.
In the middle of the night Skylar and her parents rushed to the closest hospital, which was Wingham and District Hospital, knowing something was wrong.
“They were amazing there,” noted Kayli.
They brought Skylar in and began doing bloodwork when something caught their eye.
“Right away they sent us by ambulance to London’s children’s hospital and then she needed blood transfusions and platelet transfusions and she had spiked a fever too,” Kayli said.
“Everything just happened really quick; it was weird.”
Once they arrived in London, more bloodwork was completed.
“The doctor comes and takes me to a room and she told me something a parent doesn’t want to hear,” said Kayli.
“And it was Skylar’s fight from there.”
Just before her 10th birthday she was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
She spent her birthday in a hospital room as she had to begin chemotherapy.
“When she lost her hair … she was very strong about that, it didn’t bother her,” Kayli Beuhler said. Submitted photo
Skylar’s cousin plays for the Vikings and her uncle is the coach; they wondered what the team could do to help the Beuhler family.
Her uncle reached out to Kayli, his sister, and shared the idea to raise funds during a Vikings game.
“At this point in her treatment she needs all the push and support she can get; she is sick of being poked, sick of all the medicine so we need to keep her fight going,” Kayli said.
The event will be held at the Harriston arena on Nov. 23 at 5:30pm. The game will be livestreamed so Skylar can watch in the comfort of her home.
All proceeds will go to the Beuhler family.
“[There is] no goal needed financially; it’s a lot of driving back and forth to London so anything helps,” Kayli said.
Kayli and Skylar’s father Ryan are praying for no more hospital stays, noting, “It’s always hard when you have to leave your other children.”
Skylar has two older brothers and one 10-month-old brother.
“The two oldest ones are very awesome with her,” Kayli said.
“Once we got her back home her spirits changed – she needed them.”
Skylar has finished the first two phases of her chemotherapy and is now going into the third phase, which will last approximately two years.
“She’s a strong little girl,” Kayli gushed.
