Montreal family turns painful journey into hope with Brianna’s Fight the Fight Toy Drive
Posted November 22, 2025 3:27 pm.
Last Updated November 22, 2025 4:14 pm.
A Montreal family is marking another year of Brianna’s Fight the Fight Toy Drive — an initiative created in honour of Brianna Sciascia, whose childhood was defined by medical battles no child should face.
A mission born from a childhood spent in hospital rooms
Brianna was seven when she began experiencing severe headaches. After repeated visits to the emergency room, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. A 17-hour surgery followed. The tumour was malignant, leading to six rounds of chemotherapy and 30 days of radiation, completed in Boston, where her family lived for seven weeks. The treatments left Brianna legally blind.
Five months after finishing therapy, Brianna faced another devastating diagnosis: treatment-induced acute myeloid leukemia. She needed more chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant — a match found in her eldest sister. Brianna spent months in a positive-pressure isolation room during recovery.
Today, despite ongoing challenges, Brianna is in complete remission. She attends an EMSB high school where she is learning to read and write in Braille. Her family says she loves caring for younger children, drawing, and being surrounded by people.
The toy drive that began with a child’s simple worry
The idea for the toy drive started in the hospital, where Brianna spent long stretches attached to tubes, enduring constant bloodwork and round-the-clock checks, unable to leave her room. She and many other young patients had no playdates, no breaks, and often felt lonely, physically and mentally exhausted.
Her mother says the Child Life team at the Montreal Children’s Hospital made a world of difference. Volunteers brought toys into the rooms and played with the children, offering comfort and giving parents a moment to rest.
Brianna always remembered those toys — and she worried about what would happen if the hospital ever ran out.
“We do a toy drive in my daughter’s honour,” her mother told CityNews. “She remembers all the toys she got and wanted to make sure the hospital never ran out of toys. So, since 2019, we do this toy drive.”
Turning the hardest months of their lives into something positive
The family chose October and November for the toy drive because those were the months they received both of Brianna’s cancer diagnoses. The toy drive, they say, became a way to reclaim that time of year.
They add that they chose to take away the negative and replace it with a positive thing.
A legacy of resilience — and a wish to help others
Despite remission, Brianna still faces challenges linked to her loss of vision. But her family says she never stops trying. She remains dedicated to helping younger kids — a passion strengthened by her own years of isolation and uncertainty.
Her mother says the toy drive is a way to honour that spirit, and to support children who are now walking the same difficult path Brianna once did.
To donate to the toy drive, contact Antoinette Civitillo Sciascia.
