Starkville police and fire departments made a visit to the Central Station Grill, at 200 S. Montgomery St., Saturday.
They weren’t there to respond to an emergency, rather they were there to help grant a wish.
Make a Wish Foundation granted a Starkville family’s wish by giving them an English cream retriever. When Lady Phoebe Saxon, you can just call her Phoebe, is older, she will be trained to be a therapy animal and companion.
Two firefighters got out of the ladder truck to present Phoebe to Mason Saxon, 8, who has autism and is a cancer survivor. He is the youngest son of Donald and Catherine Saxon and Bryson Saxon’s brother.
About a month after his 4th birthday, Mason was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder with Moderate Intellectual Disability and accompanying Language Disorder, which means he is nonverbal. He doesn’t react to situations like someone typically would, like get excited about a party, said Catherine Saxon.
Despite not being able to talk, Saxon still communicates with others, said his grandmother, Meredith Fraser.
“He understands commands and has a way of letting you know if he’s hungry by opening the pantry, refrigerator/freezer and pulling out what he wants to eat,” she said.
He loves his smartphone, chicken nuggets, Mickey Mouse and playing in the pool at his grandparents’ house, Fraser said.
During the presentation Starkville Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough presented Mason and Bryson with a firefighter suit costume and clear backpack with play firefighting gear.
The road to a wish
On Jan. 1, 2017, Mason was sick, so his family took him to State Urgent Clinic the next day. “After some initial blood work, they immediately sent him to (Oktibbeha County Hospital) emergency room, and it was then suspected that Mason had leukemia,” Fraser said.
After the diagnosis was confirmed at Blair E. Batson Hospital in Jackson, his parents took him to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. On Jan. 3, 2017, Mason was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, B-cell. According to WebMD, the overall type of leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. It usually attacks B cells and T cells, which are used by a body’s immune system.
“St. Jude immediately began chemotherapy the very next day,” Fraser said. “Mason and his parents lived at the Ronald McDonald House for three months while Mason received treatment.”
After that, the family returned home, but made weekly trips to St. Jude for maintenance treatments, which consisted of 126 weeks of chemotherapy.
“On Aug. 1, 2019, we celebrated his ‘No Mo Chemo’ party!” Fraser said. “Mason is still in remission after 2 years!”
The wish-granters
Make a Wish Foundation started working with the Saxon family in October 2019, a few months after Mason finished chemotherapy. The nonprofit grants every St. Jude patient a wish. So far, Make a Wish has granted a total of over 500,000 wishes to the families of critically ill children throughout the world since its founding in 1980.
Craig and Pam Peterhansen worked with the Saxon family to grant their wish. The couple have granted 69 wishes during their nine years of work with the foundation, mostly to families living in Kentucky and Mississippi. Craig is a 1981 graduate of Mississippi State.
“COVID slowed the process down as we weren’t able to meet often,” Peterhansen said of the Saxon’s wish. “But eventually, we were able to get things started so the family’s wish could come true.”
He noted that often children with life-threatening illnesses are told “no” a lot. They can’t go to school, they can’t play outside or do certain things they enjoyed before their diagnosis.
“But with this, they can hear a ‘yes.’ It is something they can have that’s all theirs,” Peterhansen said. “After you grant one wish, you want to keep doing it because of the joy and hope it brings to the families.”
The Foundation arranged the party and provided gifts for family members. According to Fraser, it will also pay for Phoebe’s training as a therapy dog when she is older.
The wish
“Originally the family was going to Disney World, but COVID put a halt to that,” Frasier said. “The family decided that a dog would be a ‘forever’ gift and hopefully be a great companion to Mason.”
Both Mason’s mother and Fraser researched what type of dog would best be suited for Mason.
“I also did some research and remember reading a story in The Dispatch about Coover’s Golden Retrievers located here in Columbus. I reached out to them and they suggested the English Cream Retriever which is more calm than a Golden Retriever,” Fraser said. “My daughter reached out to their Make A Wish representative and told them about the dog. The rest is history!”
Catherine Saxon said they plan to train Phoebe to help with Mason and be a companion for both brothers.
“So she’s going to have a really good life,” she said while holding Phoebe.
Autism assistance dogs have been shown to decrease anxiety, increase calmness, reduce emotional meltdowns and foster more manageable bedtime routines in the children they serve according to Paws for People, which trains such assistance dogs.
“We hope that if Mason begins to get upset, the dog will sense that and be able to calm Mason,” Fraser said.
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