Neighbors celebrate Christmas in October for terminally ill 7-year-old

Updated


Photo: GoFundMe

Santa Claus has decided to make a special, early appearance for a 7-year-old boy in Canada this year. Young Evan Wellwood has battled an inoperable brain tumor for the past five years. In the past six months, his condition has deteriorated. Therefore, his family, friends and neighbors decided to give him an extraordinary final Christmas...two months early.



On a GoFundMe page created on Evan's behalf, Evan's cousin wrote, "Recently Evan's mom received the news that he will not be with us much longer." Worried that the sweet young boy would miss out on enjoying Christmas in December, his family decided to bump the festivities up a couple of months. They've declared October 24 Evan's special Christmas.

Thousands of members from Evan's town of St. George, Ontario have banded together to get into the community and holiday spirit. A Facebook page was set up to announce the upcoming event and almost 3,000 people have indicated that they will be in attendance. Evan's mother, Nicole Wellwood, said:


%shareLinks-quote="You look out our front window, the entire street is lit up. Everywhere you look it's Christmas. It's more than I could have imagined. When Evan looks out his window, the backyard is decorated and there's a sign saying 'Merry Christmas.'" type="quote" author="Nicole Wellwood" authordesc="" isquoteoftheday="false"%




A local restaurant has volunteered to host Evan's family for dinner on the evening of October 24. Later, a parade of 25 floats, made just for the occasion, will pass by Evan's home for his family and him to enjoy. Evan will also undoubtedly receive many generous gifts from Santa this October. Nicole said:

%shareLinks-quote="His question is 'Why?' My answer is: 'Because you have a whole town that loves you.'" type="quote" author="Nicole Wellwood" authordesc="" isquoteoftheday="false"%

As Evan's early Christmas receives more and more publicity, the hashtag #lightsonforevan has been circulating on various social media platforms. Even Justin Bieber's father, Jeremy, posted a tweet on Twitter with the hashtag to show his support of the very worthy cause:

Merry Christmas, Evan!

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