Guelph girl dies after long battle with terminal cancer

A six-year-old Guelph girl has lost her long battle with cancer.

Autumn’s stepfather said she died on July 16 at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, surrounded by her loving family in hospital.

“She didn't suffer. She was in no pain. And she took her last breaths,” Karl Dovick told CTV News.

Autumn was diagnosed with a stage four metastatic neuroblastoma in February 2022 when she was just four-years-old.

Dovick said she remained strong, resilient, and courageous through it all.

“Autumn had a special gift: to bring people together and find a unique connection with everyone she met, even when cancer struck hard. Even in the toughest of days, she knew how to make people smile and laugh,” he said.

When CTV News talked to her family in 2022, Dovick said the cancer spread to her lymph nodes, bone sternum and hips.

“Recently, after doing some scans, they told us that it also went to her skull,” he said in a 2022 interview.

At that time, her family was told she would likely have to go through 18 to 24 months of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and immunotherapy at Sick Kids.

Autumn in hospital in Oct. 2023. (Source: TeamAutumn.ca)

Autumn’s prognosis went from bad to worse in October 2022.

“Our news we got last week was her cancer is aggressive,” her mother Sarah Rogers told CTV News. “It’s chemo-resistant and this is kind of it.”

Rogers and Dovick then decided they would move up their wedding so Autumn could be a part of their special day.

A Guelph couple moves up their wedding date so their terminally-ill daughter can attend. (Facebook/Karl Dovick)

Then, in early 2024, their family of four expanded when Rogers gave birth to a boy they named Jack. Autumn took the role of big sister very seriously. Her family said she was wise beyond her years.

“We'd wake up in the morning and Autumn would tell us like 'you guys were sleeping. And he started crying. So I just I picked him up and I burped him and I put him back to sleep,’” Dovick said. 

Autumn with her mother Sarah and new baby brother. (Source: TeamAutumn.ca)

Autumn’s health, meanwhile, took another turn in May. She returned to Sick Kids Hospital and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto to address the chronic pain she was experiencing in her legs and arms.

Autumn's Grade 1 school photo. (Source: TeamAutumn.ca)

At the end of June, Autumn started chemotherapy again.

She died in hospital less than a month later.

 “Just 24 hours prior, Autumn was reminiscing about her good memories she had over the almost seven years,” Dovick said.

Autumn in photos shared by her family. (Submitted)

Their wish is that her story inspires others to give what they can. They will continue to raise money for cancer research at Sick Kids Hospital and attend donor clinics as often as they can. Dovick estimates Autumn had upwards of 80 blood transfusions over the years.

“Spending a few minutes giving our blood can help save so many lives and can help kids with cancer or any kind of disease. Give them more time, more days on Earth to be with their families,” Dovick said.

While it hurts to say goodbye, Dovick believes Autumn is in a better place.

“She has no more cancer, no more medicine, no more pokes, no more bandages, no more nothing. She's free,” said Dovick.

Sarah Rogers, Autumn and Karl Dovick wearing their Team Autumn gear. (Submitted/Karl Dovick)

A celebration of life will be planned in the coming months, likely near her seventh birthday which was two months away.

“I want her to know that we'll be okay and that she means so much to us, more than she'll ever know,” Dovick said.

Autumn’s family said they will be forever grateful for the amount of support and love they have received from family, friends and the community at large.

“We will make sure that Autumn is never forgotten, and that she lives on within each and every one of us.”Autumn seen in a photo taken in 2024. (Submitted/Karl Dovick)