Liam’s Mission aims to make workbooks possible for those with Cystic Fibrosis and others

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Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at just three weeks old, Liam Wilson has become an inspiration to all who love him, know him, and anyone’s who simply been fortunate to come into contact with him.

As a result, Liam’s Mission was created, to raise awareness for CF — which causes thick secretions in the lungs and other organs and eventually destroys the lungs — as well as raise funds for SickKids.

It’s now 10 years later, and after countless treatments, hospital stays and other heartbreaking moments, Liam continues to face each day with bravery, laughter and determination, his mother, Deana Wilson, says.

That said, Deana admits that in the early days, her father would tell anyone and everyone about Liam’s condition — something she didn’t love.

“I used to get really upset because I would think, ‘Why are you telling everyone? They’re going to look at him differently,’” she recalled to the Toronto Sun.

“Then my dad said, ‘You know what, if you don’t advocate for him, nobody else is going to. So I will do it, for now, but you need to step up. You’re his mom.’

“And that stuck. That just lit a fire,” Wilson said.

“Ever since, we’ve been advocating hard.”

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Deana notes how their Milton community has been amazing.

“They always rally behind him, everything that we do. Everybody makes it a big deal,” she detailed, whether it’s raising funds or donating to annual toy drives for SickKids.

Liam’s resilience empowered Deana to take their experience and build something to help others like them — a series of powerful, practical, and emotional workbooks for families, kids, teachers, and health-care teams navigating invisible illnesses, chronic conditions, and mental health challenges.

“When Liam was a baby, there were no real resources,” Deana explained. “Obviously, there are parent support groups, but there was really nothing out there to help.”

Deana continued: “There was no checklist. I didn’t have anything to help me figure things out. So that’s where the workbook idea came about.”

There are now eight completed workbooks under Liam’s Mission, including books for teachers and siblings, a neurodiversity one for families, and one that focuses mental health for kids and adults.

Each one is filled with real-life strategies, emotional support, advocacy tools, and empowering language designed to make families feel seen, supported, and strong.

“We’ve been working on them for over a year,” Deana said, with parents with lived experience, hospitals and others collaborating on the project to ensure that everyone is covered.

Liam has also contributed, helping creating the children’s section of the workbooks, which include things like checklists on what to bring to the hospital.

“There were daily affirmations or what would his life be like without CF, what would he like to tell people about him having CF,” Deana listed.

“There’s different things in there about it and he helped do those.”

While the workbooks are already being requested by SickKids, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Ottawa Cystic Fibrosis Clinic and school boards, including Halton and Peel, it’s still a massive undertaking.

“The goal is 5,000 workbooks in the hands of the hospitals, clinics, parents, families and schools,” Deana said.

“We’ve reached out to CF Canada, and they said they would love to put them in their newborn packages so that’s huge. But again, it’s a funding issue.”

Liam’s Mission has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to make the workbooks completely free to families — whether they are touched by CF or not — across Canada.

“In order to do that, we are asking the community to help,” Deana said.

“We’re doing sponsorships with different companies and businesses but hopefully it will all help.”