Dying girl, 5, granted special wish by charity asked if she could live forever

A terminally ill five year-old girl granted a special wish by a charity asked: ‘Can I wish to live forever?’

The young cancer sufferer, named Stephanie, made the heartbreaking request when asked to pick something she’d like to take her mind off being sick.

Stephanie’s poignant words were revealed by pediatric oncology social worker Janalee Heinemann, whose job saw her watch 128 children die of cancer between 1985 and 1995.

Janalee, who has just published a book about her experiences, told of how another girl, 11 year-old Mindy Ostoff, chose surgery that would leave her totally blind in the hopes of saving her life.

Tragically, the operation failed, with Mindy nonetheless ‘screaming with glee’ during a special theme park trip organized just before she died.

Another youngster, Jason Council, was determined to pass his driving test on his 16th birthday, despite losing his left leg to a form of cancer which had spread to his lungs.

The teenager stopped taking morphine in order to be as alert as was required for the examination, and passed it with flying colors just 10 days before his death.

Janalee, who lives in Sarasota, Florida told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune how 19 year-old Jason Struble was concerned about his appearance after he died.

He asked his loved ones to ‘rub my body with Skin So Soft (moisturizer) so when you kiss me in the casket, like you did Grandma, I will smell good.’

Another girl, 10 year-old Megan Nelson, was also thinking ahead, and asked her family ‘Will you put my blankey in the casket with me when I die?’

Janalee collected the anecdotes from her decade working at St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri.

She helped organize dying wishes for young cancer sufferers, including a visit from some Hooters girls to a dying teenager, as well as trips to the FBI headquarters and White House in Washington DC.

Janalee hopes her book, Remember Me: A Memoir of Children and Teens Combatting Cancer, will serve as a lasting memorial to those youngsters who died so soon.

The author said: ‘I feel I owe them that. They deserve to be remembered.

‘That’s often people’s biggest fear, that their child will be forgotten. And teenagers’ biggest fear, that nobody will remember them.’

Janalee was spurred into writing the book last year after her 52 year-old son Tad was diagnosed with cancer.

He continues to battle the disease, and gave his mother permission to reproduce some of his social media updates on the disease for her book.

Janalee also spoke of her frustration at parents being pressured into taking their children into faith healers to try and cure them, then being stricken with guilt after their attempts fail.

The writer, who is herself Christian, said: ‘That still drives me crazy, especially the ministers who take advantage of that.

‘What they’re saying is, if your child died, it’s because didn’t have enough faith and you didn’t pray hard enough. What a horrible thing to say