One tiny fighter, countless smiles: A journey from illness to joy

Two-year-old Wrenley Hartung and her family have been through more than their share of health complications in the last year.

Her mother, Delaney Sims, said that her daughter was really sick, and no one had an answer why. Doctors “kept telling me that ‘it’s viral, just don’t worry about it, she’ll get better,’ and then things kept happening.”

At 17 months old, Sims found a lump behind Wrenley’s ear, which doctors again chalked up to being part of a viral infection.

On Aug. 25, 2024, things went downhill fast. Being an active child, Sims became concerned when “(Wrenley) wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, wouldn’t take Tylenol, but she had a fever. Then she was sleeping on the couch, and she never does that.”

Enough was enough, and Sims took Wrenley to the emergency room, where they took one look at her daughter and rushed them right to the back. A strep test came back positive, but because of Sims’ concerns, doctors ran more tests where they found her white blood cell count was 268. The normal amount in a child Wrenley’s age is 5,000-19,000.

It was then that she received the news no parent wants to hear. Wrenley had leukemia.

“At that point, everything just stopped. I just couldn’t believe it,” Sims said. “You don’t think it would ever happen to you.”

It didn’t take long for them to get transferred down to SickKids, where Wrenley was officially diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Living in Toronto for 10 months, only with brief visits home, was full of tests, procedures, and complications. Wrenley had a harder-to-treat type of the disease, meaning she not only had to go through three rounds of chemotherapy, but a bone marrow transplant as well.

The transplant appeared to have worked, “all of a sudden, all her counts were at zero. That means everything is working and everything’s going well.” Until suddenly, it wasn’t.

Wrenley started sleeping all day. The care team said this was normal after a transplant, but Sims knew that something was wrong. She had seen Wrenley grab the back of her head while screaming.

Eventually, they sent her for an MRI. “We were holding our breath, and then the results came back, and it turns out that she actually had meningitis.”

When all other treatments failed, she was put on steroids. “After that first dose, the fevers went away. Her puking stopped, and suddenly she was like a whole different kid, just doing so well.”

The mother and daughter have only been home since May, after spending 105 days at the Ronald McDonald House. Sitting in their living room, Sims can’t help but smile at how full of life Wrenley is now that she’s back home. “Even before all of this, she just always had a very spunky, strong personality. We call her a little brute because she’s just tough,” she said.

Wrenley spends her time with Kawartha Lakes Weekly, running around on the couch and begging her mom for a popsicle, things any normal kid would do. Sims says it’s been the best feeling to watch her child go from being sick to now being able to get back to a new sense of normal. “It’s so exciting to see the change, and her coming back to her full self.”

“I would not have survived this whole process if she wasn’t who she is, the most happy-go-lucky, tough kid that I’ve ever met in my life. She is incredible,” Sims said. Even through all the tests, treatments, and pain, “she got through it all with that smile on her face.”

While she is still at a stage where her immune system is down, meaning the family must be careful for the next few months, Wrenley is looking forward to starting school in September. Sims is ready to “get back to and enjoy life. Obviously, things are still in the back of our minds, but I think the further we move away from the transplant, the more at ease we can feel.”

With new bloodwork having just been completed, things are looking good. “Her platelets are as high as they’ve ever been. Her hemoglobin is up, so she’s getting her colour back. She’s starting to get her hair back, her eyelashes, and eyebrows.”

For Sims, it’s a little bittersweet being home, when so many friends she made while at the Ronald McDonald House are not. “That’s what’s hard about coming home. It’s great to be home, I’m happy. But then you make friends down there who are still in the thick of it. You carry the weight of everybody else, you know exactly how it feels.”

While she knows firsthand how difficult it is to have a child with cancer, the best advice she has for those going through similar circumstances is to “stay as positive as you can. When it’s over, you will just look back and think we did it, and now you can enjoy the rest of your life. Just try to stay positive and know that the end is in sight.”