'They call me a bit of a miracle': Calgary student wins $5K Brain Tumour Foundation scholarship

Sadie Kline talks to her pastor Layne Kilbreath, director of faith formation at Calgary Christian School, about her three brain surgeries. (CTV News)

A Calgary student has won a $5,000 scholarship after writing an essay about her experience of being diagnosed with a brain tumour at a young age and her subsequent brain surgeries.

Sadie Kline, 21, wrote her essay and sent it to the Canadian Youth Education Award for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada and won the $5,000 prize.

"I'm going to use that scholarship to work in school and become an occupational therapist for kids with brain injuries," she said.

Kline is set to graduate in April 2025 from the community rehabilitation and disabilities studies program in Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Then she plans on applying for a two-year master's degree. Kline says none of this would have been possible without her illness.

"It brought me to an interest in the brain," she said. "I love learning about psychology and neuroanatomy, it made me want to help other kids with brain injuries because I kind of know what it's like to feel sick or to just have seizures or just brain-related issues and the mental health that comes along with it."

Kline was diagnosed with a brain tumour at four years old. After the large mass was removed, she got to be a regular kid attending preschool, elementary and then high school with lots of friends.

But at 14 years old, Kline's health began to decline and almost everything she ate made her sick. At 15, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and endured numerous tests to track her brain activity and stop the seizures, but medications weren't working.

Her second brain surgery was at 17 years old to insert probes into her skull to track the seizures more accurately.

"(Doctors) would test the probes by switching them on and they could make my hand move up or my tongue tastes spicy or my eyes feel like there's water in them," she said.

"They found out that the hippocampus and the amygdala on part of my brain just didn't do anything, didn't have a function and so those were causing seizures and they hoped that there wouldn't be any side effects of taking that out."

Kline and her family were faced with several possible outcomes from the surgery where she could end up disabled or dead. But the doctors were successful and now she's doing better than expected.

"I went into grade 12 after that and all my grades went up," she said. "(Doctors) did tests and said that they've never seen a patient like me or maybe only once or twice in their 25-year career, they call me a bit of a miracle."

Now Kline is a mentor for people with epilepsy through different foundations in Calgary and volunteers by helping kids with autism.

"I want to take what has been given to me and make the most of it," she said. "Because I think that the things that happen to people, they're not just something that happens, there's a reason for all of it and I think my reason is the foundation of my whole purpose in life, so I can serve back."

Kline has had support through her medical journey from her parents and family friends and says in her experience, there's so much good that can come out of the pain and the suffering and she's grateful for it.

"I think that whether I have a full brain or I'm missing parts of it, or I might have had a bit of a traumatic story in the past, those differences are what's created me to be who I am," she said.

Learn more about Kline on the Brain Tumour Foundation's website.