Wish granted: Twin Falls cancer patient living out her final days in Florida » Dream Foundation

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Wish granted: Twin Falls cancer patient living out her final days in Florida

Dreamer Stories | In the News | August 15, 2018

As Christina Gardner faced end-stage lung cancer that metastasized to her brain, she had one dream: to spend her final days in Florida.

St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute in Twin Falls, Harrison’s Hope in Twin Falls — a hospice care provider — and the national Dream Foundation partnered to make it happen.

Gardner lived in Florida for about 25 years, but moved to Twin Falls a year ago to be closer to her daughter and granddaughter.

“This patient’s dying wish was to die in Florida,” said Heidi Walker, hospice consultant with Harrison’s Hope.

Toma Bartlett, executive director of Harrison’s Hope, added: “She was very much happier in Florida than here.”

Thanks to several groups working quickly, Gardner arrived Aug. 5 in St. Augustine, Fla., accompanied on the trip by her brother and sister. Her boyfriend, John Griffin, arrived Saturday to join her. Their three dogs are being driven to Florida now and will be reunited with the couple soon.

Gardner and Griffin gave permission to their medical providers to talk to the Times-News about their story, but they did not talk to a reporter.

Mallory Cotten, an oncology social worker at St. Luke’s MSTI, has spoken with Gardner a couple of times since she arrived back in Florida.

“She’s so happy to be back where she feels comfortable,” she said, adding Gardner loves the beach.

Gardner is in a lot of pain, Cotten said, but is receiving treatment to help her manage it and have as good of a quality of life as possible at the end stage of the disease.

Cotten met Gardner in March when she became a St. Luke’s MSTI patient. “She went through treatment and she fought really hard,” she said. “She did everything she possibly could.”

After Gardner was told there weren’t many options left for cancer treatment, she told Cotten she wanted to move back to Florida before she died. But due to her health, Gardner wasn’t able to make a cross-country trip by car.

St. Luke’s MSTI submitted an application for Gardner to the Dream Foundation, a national organization that works to grant wishes for terminally ill adults and their families.

Walker has worked with the Dream Foundation in the past to help hospice patients. “I have used them frequently and they have never said ‘no’ to a dream,” she said.

Within a week-and-a-half after submitting the application to the Dream Foundation, Gardner was in Florida. “It was very quick,” Cotten said.

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