Via Calgary Herald:
Long before five different goal scorers prompted the C of Red to rise in celebration as part of the Calgary Flames’ seventh-straight win, a brave 11-year-old girl elicited a similar reaction.
Standing on the red carpet alongside George Canyon for his singing of the national anthems before a rare Sunday afternoon game, Olivia Lettich was introduced to the crowd.
The response was as heart-warming as her story.
Diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer at four months of age, Olivia battled through nine rounds of chemotherapy and 50 radiation treatments in an effort to save her eyes.
At age two she lost her right eye, leaving her legally blind with a left eye that provides her with only peripheral vision due to the scar tissue from her cancer battle.
A lifelong Flames fan who has long had to sit a few feet away from the TV just to see shapes of her favourite players, the polite Grade 5 student from Captain John Palliser School was given two life-altering opportunities on the weekend.
The first was a new pair of specialized electronic glasses from a company called eSight that uses real-time video technology to enable the legally blind to see and independently carry out all activities of daily living.