Source: ABC News / NICOLE PELLETIERE
A Florida teen who battled cancer has been granted her one wish.
Lacey Dietz, 15, of Coral Springs, Florida, was introduced to her new best friend, Casper, a miniature American Eskimo dog, on Aug. 13.
“She still had a couple of close friends come visit her, but for the most part, she’s alone all day long,” Lacey’s dad John Dietz told ABC News of his daughter. “From the moment she [and Casper] first met, he literally followed her wherever she’d go. That’s the first time I’ve seen her smile like that in a year.”
The news, delivered via phone call, was devastating to the Dietz family.
“It took my breath away,” John Dietz said. “I said, ‘I’m not understanding what you’re telling me’ and the nurse said, ‘Your daughter has cancer.’ The next thing I remember, my son, who was 18 years old at the time, walked into the garage and picked me up off the floor. I never understand people with cancer or people who had children with cancer until now. The world was black.”
Lacey completed all her chemo treatments at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg and has been in remission for six months, Dietz said.
Since her battle with lymphoma, Lacey and her family has been in contact with The Children’s Dream Fund, a Florida-based group.