SANTA PAULA : Cancer Patient to Visit Disney World

Kristin Kay, who is battling a rare form of bone cancer, had already narrowed the list to two places when she was asked where in the world she would most like to go.

Disney World in Florida won out over Hawaii.

“There will be more things to do” there, the 11-year-old Santa Paula girl said.

Kristin, her 8-year-old sister, Brittany, and their parents will take the trip in January courtesy of the Camarillo office of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a Ventura employment agency and local merchants.

The nonprofit foundation, dedicated to granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, donated the plane tickets and is arranging the trip.

Network Personnel of Ventura persuaded a Disney World hotel to donate rooms and held a drawing that raised $500 in spending money. Ventura merchants donated prizes for the drawing.

Kristin’s mother, Debbie Kay, said the trip will be a needed break for the family, whose lives have been dominated by the schedule of Kristin’s surgeries, doctors’ appointments and chemotherapy treatments since the osteogenic sarcoma was diagnosed in May, 1991.

She has since undergone months of chemotherapy and five surgeries, including two operations that replaced portions of the bones in her upper arms with metal prostheses.

This week, doctors said Kristin’s body was clear of cancer. To help prevent a recurrence, Kristin will begin another round of chemotherapy next week.

Debbie Kay said the family has coped by keeping a sense of humor and a positive attitude.

“My husband’s a real jokester, and he’s always making up silly songs about chemotherapy,” she said. Steve Kay is the minister of Santa Paula Church of Christ.

“It just helps to keep it a little bit light,” Debbie Kay said.

In addition, she said, “we decided at the beginning of this we were going to find something positive every day. Sometimes it was just that she didn’t get sick as many times that day.”

Kristin’s illness has helped the family gain perspective on what is important in life, Debbie Kay said.

“There are things that matter,” she said, “and there are things that matter.”