Saskatoon mom hopes children’s book about daughter who died of cancer will help others

A Saskatoon mother hopes to help children with cancer by telling the story of her daughter who died last spring from an aggressive form of leukemia.

Cass Thiesen’s daughter Clarke was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) when she was just two years old.

Thiesen said Clarke spent much of the next four years receiving radiation, chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and other treatments to try to cure the disease.

Throughout that time, Clarke never let her family think about the fact that she was sick, Thiesen said.

“She didn’t quit, so we didn’t quit,” Thiesen said.

“She was dancing before her first radiation session. She knew they were going to lock her on a table in a radiation mask and before that she was just dancing in the hallways with all these older people she was sitting in the room with and they were just smiling at her. She just brought joy.”

talking to saskatoon morning host Estefania Massicotte, Thiesen He said Clarke remained positive despite spending much of her life at Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital and asked for birthday gifts for her little brother, not herself.

“Oh God, that girl could command a room,” Thiesen said.

“He had so much spirit that he loved to joke with everyone. We were constantly setting different booby traps and scaring the nurses.”

Clarke died at age six last April. After his death, his family established a foundation to support Saskatchewan families facing cancer.

During the celebration of Clarke’s life, family friend Tracy Kondratiuk began to think her story could help other children.

“I had a lightbulb moment while I was there thinking this is a children’s book. It reads like a children’s book.”

With Thiesen’s support, Kondratiuk wrote the children’s book. Clarke’s big, brave heart to capture Clarke’s quirks, inspire children living with cancer, and provide a tool for families to talk about the disease.

“I think it teaches a lot of lessons to kids, and kids who may be going through other challenges or health battles, but also something that parents can use as a teaching tool and a way for people to really appreciate the life that they’ve been given,” Kondratiuk said.

Thiesen said the book also gives people, especially other children, a way to talk about what they and Clarke have been through.

Money raised from the sale of the book will support the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital and help families suffering from cancer in Saskatchewan through the Forever Clarke Foundation.