13-year-old chosen as 2020 Champion Child for sick, injured kids

A 13-year-old girl from Balcarres has been chosen as this year’s Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation champion child, picked to represent and speak on behalf of sick and injured kids from around Saskatchewan.

Torrie Schaffer said she’s thrilled to have been chosen; she hopes to share her own story of living with an auto-immune disease while serving in the role.

At nine years old, she was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP). It attacks platelets in her blood, which puts her at a high risk for easy bruising and internal bleeding; platelets function to clot blood flow.

“I will bruise easily and bleed under the skin. With the bruising easily, they’re unexplained bruises so I don’t know where I got them from,” she said.

It’s scary and uncomfortable to know internal bleeding can happen so easily to her, she said.

As part of the role, Schaffer will serve as ambassador for the province, speaking at events across Saskatchewan and North America.

She said it’s exciting to get “get my disease out there, so people understand it more. Knowing that now I can help other kids in the hospital, it makes me really happy.”

Her parents, Jason Shaffer and Darci Skjerven, said it has been hard watching their daughter cope with news of her blood disease. But they commended her “being such a fighter” over the last four years.

Still, they have to be cautious with her day-to-day activities.

“We try not to let her do contact sports, like no soccer and no baseball, because if she gets hit and her platelets are low, she’s going to bruise and she could bleed internally,” Skjerven said.

Also as part of the Champion Child program, Torrie and her family are to travel to Orlando, Fla. during the spring to meet other kids from across North America for Children’s Hospitals Week.

“Torrie is truly the definition of a champion and we are very excited to have her serve as our Champion Child for 2020,” said Sash Broda, the manager of Development and Engagement with the foundation.

“With her inspiring story, we know she will do an amazing job sharing what the new Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital means to her and other kids from across the province,” Broda said.