Terminally ill teen lives her ultimate dream
Kiaana Brown, an Australian teenager suffering from a rare terminal illness, has lived out her ultimate dream by spending three hours on the set of Home and Away and mingling with the cast.
Adelaide Now reports that Kiaana, who hails from Aldinga Beach and has juvenile Betten disease, got the chance to live out her dream after being interviewed by The Southern Times Messenger last month. The newspaper contacted Seven Network and Today Tonight after their interview with the teenager, who had claimed her ultimate dream was to meet the cast of the famous Aussie soap.
Today Tonight, touched by Kiaana’ss story, flew her to Sydney to meet the Home and Away cast on May 6th as they filmed on Palm Beach. She met cast members Dan Ewing (Heath Braxton), Andrew Morley and Johnny Ruffo, as well as her favourite star Lincoln Younes (Casey Braxton).
Lincoln Younes, who plays Casey Braxton, is Kiaana’ss favourite Home and Away actor.
Kiaana’ss mother Alicia is quoted in Adelaide Now as saying: “Right at the end, Lincoln Younes came running up to meet Kiaana and signed the back of her jacket. He’ss Kiaana’ss favourite, so she absolutely loved it.”
Kiaana called the day “amazing”, describing it as the best day of her life, and her mother claims the experience has put a huge smile on her daughter’ss face. The teenager has been treated like a celebrity since The Southern Times Messenger interviewed her in April, a move which Alicia claims has had “such a positive impact on [Kiaana’ss] life”.
Juvenile Batten disease is a rare hereditary disorder that primarily affects the nervous system, and results in loss of vision, seizures and intellectual decline. Most sufferers live into their teens or twenties, although some individuals have lived into their thirties.