7-year-old donates thousands in toys to kids in hospital over the holidays

Jamie-Lynn Frommelt was playing in her neighbourhood park the last time we spoke, revealing how her dream job would be “cat walker.”

“Some people need a break from cats because they scratch up a lot of things,” the seven-year-old explained, saying she would like to walk 100 cats at a time.

That was then.

But now, Jamie-Lynn is waiting in a hotel room for yet another visit to B.C. Children’s Hospital, a ferry ride away from her home.

“It feels sad and scary,” Jamie-Lynn says.

Over the past two years, Jamie-Lynn has been treated in hospital 17 times for a potentially life-threatening liver disease.

“She should not have to have gone through everything she’s gone through,” Amanda Frommelt says.

Amanda says her daughter has to endure an invasive procedure to stop internal bleeding every six to eight weeks.

“But she goes through it all with a smile and she doesn’t complain about a thing,” Amanda says, showing pictures of her girl attached to tubes in a hospital bed.

Jamie-Lynn is also grateful that the hospital’s child life specialist, Diane Edwards, strives to make the experience more manageable by delivering something fun to distract from the young patient’s discomfort.

“But all I had to provide to [Jamie-Lynn] at that time were colouring and crayons,” Diane says. “Sometimes our donations are bare and we have very little to provide.”

When Diane left the hospital room that day, Jamie-Lynn made a declaration.

“She said, ‘Mom! We got to buy them more toys!’” Amanda recalls with a smile, before telling her daughter, “Let’s get you out of the hospital first!”

Jamie-Lynn started a fundraiser as soon as she could, received $2,600 worth of donations, and bought toys for children of all ages.

“I think that’s pretty remarkable,” Diane says after Jamie-Lynn delivered the donations and helped fill the cupboard with toys. “She didn’t just think it, she did it.”

And this week, Jamie-Lynn did it again and raised even more.

The day before she left for her own procedure, the girl delivered $3,250 worth of toys to her local hospital in time for the holidays.

“On Christmas, I want them to have toys,” Jamie-Lynn smiles. “I hope they feel happy.”

Jamie-Lynn also hopes that her spreading kindness will be contagious.

“If you spread [kindness] to some people, they will spread it to more people,” Jamie-Lynn says before breaking into a big smile. “It will be a world of kind.”