Most toddlers crawl or wobble from one point to another.
Not Evelyn Moore.
Instead she zips around in her custom-made wheelchair, a solution her father came up with after cancer left the toddler paralyzed.
It was a rocky start; the Edmonton toddler had to learn how to operate her wheels. But the tot quickly learned.
“When kids crawl, they move backwards, and then forwards and then they learn how to turn. It was the same for her, and then one day she just got it,” her mom Kimberly Moore told TODAY Parents.
Photo credit: Brand Moore / TODAY Parents
“We had to throw down a piece of wood in our living room to create a speed bump because she was just flying.”
Evelyn’s cancer was discovered when she was only four-months-old, when the doctors noticed that she had an overextension in her hips during a routine checkup.
“It was stage 4 neuroblastoma, which were some pretty scary words,” Kimberly said. “Now I can say them, but I couldn’t at first.”
Attacking her spine and attached to a lung and her heart, the cancer forced Evelyn to undergo undergo eight rounds of chemotherapy. The procedure left her paralyzed below her arms.
To help their daughter move around, the parents went online to look for wheelchairs but found none that fit the size of their small daughter.
“Doctors told her parents she wouldn’t be big enough for a children’s wheelchair for another couple of years,” the TODAY report said. “Until then, she would have to get around using her arms in a military-style crawl.”
Then one day, Kimberly found herself on Pinterest and saw a photo of a custom-made wheelchair.
It was created by another father, made using a rubber Bumbo seat, a kitchen cutting board, some caster wheels and a pair of children’s bicycle tires.
“I brought it to my husband and said, ‘Can we do this, too?’ And so we went together to the parts store,” said Kimberly. “We couldn’t wrap our heads around how the heck we were going to put all these things together.
“We just kept looking at each other. I work as an event planner, and my husband works as a tire technician.
Photo credit: Brad Moore / TODAY Parents
“We have no experience doing projects like this, and so we even had to buy a few tools to get it done.”
However, within two says, Evelyn’s own wheelchair was finished.
The toddler has been in remission for two months now, and although everyday proves to be a challenge for the family, they’re ready to do whatever it takes to make things work.
“We’re just building a regular life, that’s all we see. And that other people see us as inspiring? She definitely is, but all we are are parents just trying to give our kid the tools to be a kid, really.”
READ: 15 Cancer signs in children that you might be ignoring
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