Friday, September 4th, 2015
We were hit hard yesterday with the news of one of our cancer kids passing away. You might have heard of him, his name is Dominic Rooney. In fact a lot of people have heard about this 2 year old boy because he touched so many of our lives. Once you heard about him or met him he would steal a piece of your heart, and you would willingly give it away. Following his passing, the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Cannucks, and Country 105 put up a social media posting honouring Dom, as this little trouper made friends everywhere he went. I still remember the first time I met Dom, as I went about meeting this new cancer family at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dom was only two and had spent the majority of his life in a hospital, battling AML (Leukemia). There was never a day that I was in that building that I wouldn’t stop by and visit him. He would walk me around, want wagon rides, kisses, dancing or would giggle while slaying me with his Darth Vader litesabre (which was bigger than he was and quite cute to see him walk around with it). When I wasn’t able to visit him, I would get the odd phone call from him. Dom wasn’t able to talk, so the phone call consisted of squeaks and what we like to call “Eeeps”. He really liked talking on the telephone when he was feeling well enough. I even plotted to kidnap him once, although I probably shouldn’t admit that here. He was just that cute!
His Mom and Dad (Sean and 
Trish) are equally as loveable, after all it is their personalities that shaped Dom into the amazing little man that he was. Sean began writing a blog and thousands of people tuned in to read what the family was up to next. His last blog post alone had 23,000 views. Dominic passed away at 11:45 AM, Sept. 3, 2015, while on his wish trip to Disneyworld. It was like he wanted him Mommy and Daddy all to himself without any interruptions, so he took them to Florida to make sure that would happen. Maybe in some backwards way, he really did get his wish.
Our foundation would like to send our hearts out to Sean and Trish as they process their loss as well as their special moments together. Dominic will always remain our little hero.
Written by:
Carie Stock
Executive Director
Photo credit: Jennifer Friesen