Family camp offered connections for Surrey burn survivor

A burns camp for young children and their families helped a Surrey family connect with others who had had a similar experience.

Spencer Oulton was 17 months old when an accident left him with second and third degree burns.

His family rushed him to the hospital, and after spending the night, Spencer returned home, but that wasn’t the end of the hospital visits.

Spencer’s mother, Rachel, told the Now-leader that for the next few weeks they had to go to BC Children’s Hospital for burn baths.

That’s where, under sedation, they remove the dressings from Spencer’s burns, wash the area and apply new dressings.

“It was a lot,” Rachel remembers. “Luckily we got through all of this before the COVID lockdown. »

The following year, which coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spencer had to wear compression vests, his parents rubbed lotion on his shoulder twice a day and made sure his face was sheltered from the sun.

“It was very isolating being at home and trying to manage this during COVID,” Rachel said.

A hospital social worker put the Oultons in touch with the BC Professional Firefighters’ Burn Fund. The charity supports burn survivors throughout their recovery and offers a variety of programs and retreats for survivors and their families, including Little Lionhearts Family Camp.

The three-day camp aims to help survivors, from infants to six years old, as well as their immediate family members and caregivers, “understand and cope with the physical and emotional challenges associated with burn recovery,” reads an article on burnfund.org.

Rachel said to Now-leader that she and her husband, Nick, didn’t know what to expect when they got the chance to attend camp in 2023, when Spencer was 5 years old.

His eldest, Bennett, 8, hesitated. “Our oldest son was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go, like it’s for babies and little kids,’ but he had a great time too,” Rachel said.

“It was just an amazing time to bond as a family, like our nuclear family, but then to connect with other families who have had similar experiences,” Rachel said. “Being able to talk about it with other families and connect with them has been really great.” »

Little Lionhearts Family Camp and other programs run by the Burn Fund have been a big source of help for the Oultons.

Essential services and programs for survivors, like the Little Lionhearts Family Camp, are made possible in part through financial support from fundraising initiatives like the Hometown Heroes Lottery, said Jeff Sauvé, executive director of BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, in a press release.

“Every ticket purchased directly contributes to funding essential services at VGH and UBC Hospital, GF Strong Rehab Center and Vancouver Community Health Services, while also supporting Burn Fund initiatives helping burn and trauma survivors in the entire province,” we can read in the press release.

One of 10 grand prize options in the 2024 Hometown Heroes Lottery is a South Surrey home at 16038 9A Avenue worth more than $2.5 million.

Tickets are available online at www.heroeslottery.com, by phone at 604-648-4376 or 1-866-597-4376, or in person at any London Drugs store.