Remembering a fighter, Variety Village honours swimmer

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Variety Village teems with warriors, and not just in taekwondo class.

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Caroline Breen is a beautiful example:

A fighter? Minutes into her life, she was on an air ambulance flight to Kingston neonatal ICU, then another to Sick Kids in Toronto. She was given last rites. Doctors shook their heads and asked her parents if they’d rather she die in hospital or at home. So, they took her home and fed her through a tube, but she refused to die.

The little red-haired girl survived on dialysis and at age three had a kidney transplant.

Gradually, she lost her sight. First her night vision went, then her peripheral. Soon, she was seeing through a closing tunnel. By her 20s, her world was completely dark.

“Oh, well,” she would say, “now I can hear better.” The great fighters — Muhammad Ali, Jackie Chan — always have a sense of humour.

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Caroline’s foe? A nasty genetic quirk called Bardet-Biedle Syndrome (BBS). Its myriad effects even include extra toes — removed in infancy — and bouts of obesity. Often BBS causes cognitive issues, in Caroline’s case mainly with her speech, for which she took therapy.

Yes, life dealt Caroline Breen a lousy hand. But she played it like the Cincinnati Kid.

Learning to read was an ordeal, but she persevered and devoured books, audio versions when her sight failed. She graduated from high school. She was a fan of country music and talk radio and could hold her own in any political debate. She learned to skate, to ski, to ride a tandem bike or on the back of dad, John Breen’s motorcycle.

She was a fixture in the Beaches, navigating Queen St. East with her cane. She took pride in getting herself to Variety Village. She had her own condo, with her beloved little white dog, Rosie.

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“When you think of what Caroline went through, how she might have turned out, yet she became a woman of unbridled enthusiasm and inspiration,” says Marilyn Jang, one of her coaches on Variety’s Sunshine Swim Team, part of the Special Olympics program.

At meets, Caroline was famous for exhorting teammates with a refrain from Disney’s Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.”

She did a killer impression of The Muppets’ Cookie Monster.  She unabashedly used the quip, “the blind leading the blind.”

“Caroline cracked people up,” says Marilyn. “She knew the value of bringing people together with laughter.”

“Caroline loved Variety Village,” says dad John. “She loved the social interaction, the camaraderie, the lack of judgment. She loved that she could fit in.”

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Caroline Breen died a year ago of kidney and liver failure at Toronto General, at age 33.

“I miss her every day,” says her dad. “She was a kid with a lot of disadvantages who grew into a remarkable woman. She was a fighter. She continues to be an inspiration.

“I wanted to do something for Variety Village because it was such an important part of Caroline’s life.”

So, two weeks ago, a non-descript hallway lounge at the Village became Caroline’s Corner. It has cheery furniture, colourful plants and a small mural of highlights from Caroline’s life.

Her swim teammates were at the unveiling, including Marilyn Jang’s daughter, Kathleen Woo, who has Down syndrome. Kathleen still speaks of her friend in the present tense. “Caroline is a wonderful person,” says Kathleen. “She brings joy to everyone she knows.”

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Given Caroline’s enduring legacy, maybe present tense works just fine.

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HOW TO HELP

Kids with disabilities are Variety Village’s mainstay, but the connection is not lost when they stop being kids. Even into adulthood, Caroline Breen swam with the Sunshine Team and worked out in the sprawling fieldhouse. The Village is a second home for a lifetime for many people with disabilities. You can help keep it so, through the Sun Christmas Fund, like these most recent donors. The mail strike is really cramping the fund’s style, but you can donate direct at www.sunchristmasfund.ca

Duncan Stirrat, Toronto, $100

John and Sharon Keenan, Mississauga, $350

Rosemarie Scholes, Toronto, $30

Gloria Riddall, Mississauga, $100

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Douglas Paterson, Markham, $100

Sam Ofstedahl, Toronto, $50

Anonymous, $100

Keith Garbett, London, $50

Marlene Wolfer, Toronto, $100, in honour of Kathy

Nazia Hamidi, Bradford West Gwillimbury, $50

Eleanor Hall, Pickering, $25

Robert E. Brown, Etobicoke, $50, in honour of Michelle

Glenn Runciman, Oakville, $150

Debbie Forrester, Toronto, $50, in honour of Bryan Austin

Gail Quinney, Toronto, $100

Dennis Parsons, Toronto, $250

Jeff Markus, Toronto, $100

Marilyn Neilson, Scarborough, $250

Sheila and Ted Russell, Mississauga, $100

David Wells, Beeton, $100

TOTAL:  $2,205

TOTAL TO DATE: $44,382

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