Surrounded by a small group of family and friends on her 51st birthday, Stacey Kalina made a wish and blew out the candles.

Then the very next day — on May 28 — her wish came true.

An MRI showed that the life-threatening tumor in her brain had responded to treatment and was shrinking. On that day, she got part of her life back and most importantly, hope for the future.

“When I blew those candles out, guess what I was wishing for?,” said Kalina, a longtime, popular Redmond resident and mother of five.

Kalina said she was “very surprised and happy” about the MRI result.

Kailan, Stacey’s third child who graduated from Redmond High School last week, said she distinctly remembers seeing her mom the day she found out about the MRI result.

“Her spirt was much brighter,” Kailan said, adding that her mother’s tone of voice was more uplifting.

Stacey’s birthday wish came true, but her battle against brain cancer is not over.

“Now I just wait and see,” Stacey said.

A CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE

Stacey, an active, healthy-living woman who graduated from Redmond High School (RHS), worked as the kitchen manager at RHS for four years before she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common type of brain tumor, in early March. That’s when her busy, always-on-the-go lifestyle hit a life-altering road block.

Instead of working and spending time with her kids, her days were spent in the hospital. From mid-March to the end of May, she spent every day — except weekends — undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatment at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.

She barely had enough energy to get out of bed. Simple tasks like writing her name, driving and cooking were impossible to do. The tumor also affected her speech, making it a struggle to have simple conversations.

“She was so active, such a social person,” said Sarah Bullock, 26, the oldest of Stacey’s five children. “She’s so passionate about so many things. This really changed her lifestyle. To see that has been the hardest part for me.”

Kailan agreed, saying, “it was a struggle. It was hard because I wasn’t used to seeing her that way and I felt bad. … I would worry about her all the time, every day. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t want to go to school because I was worried about her.”

When she was first diagnosed with the deadly disease, Stacey couldn’t believe it.

“I was thinking, ‘Why did this happen to me?’,” said Stacey, who can hear and see fine, but now has speech problems. “It’s very hard to think that this is happening.”

Stacey had surgery a week after being diagnosed on March 11 to remove most of the tumor. Then she endured the draining, tiresome treatment process. Then came her birthday wish — a bright light in an otherwise dark situation.

Stacey said the May 28 MRI result was a huge boost of hope as she is slowly returning to her normal life. Following the May 28 MRI, doctors told her she didn’t have to come in for radiation treatment every day. She just has to take a chemotherapy pill for five days every month. She will have MRIs every two months, with the next coming in mid-July to monitor her progress.

Kailan and Sarah both said they see an improvement in their mother. There are days where Stacey will work in her flower garden, go on walks through the neighborhood or cook dinner for her family, which Stacey said has been instrumental in her battle against brain cancer.

SUPER SUPPORT

As a matter of fact, the support she has gotten has been extraordinary — and therapeutic.

Stacey, along with 50 other family members and friends, known as “Team Stacey,” will participate in the Third Annual Seattle Brain Cancer Walk at the Seattle Center on Saturday. Most of the walking members are immediate family. Her husband, Bruce, along with her children, Sarah Bullock, 26, Richard, 23, Kailan, 18 and 16-year-old twins Austin and Carley, all plan to be walking alongside Stacey as a show of support and love. Team Stacey has raised more than $9,000 to go toward the fight against a disease that affects 22,000 Americans each year.

Sarah said the outpouring of support has made her mother’s situation “a lot easier.”

Kailan, who will be attending the University of Oregon this fall, said the event will be a fun celebration of her mother’s ongoing successful fight against cancer.

“It’s going to be pretty upbeat,” she said. “Knowing our family, everyone has accepted what’s happening and they all know she is getting better. We want this to be something she can look back on and say ‘Wow, that’s a really great thing to have, to have all those people around me.'”

Sarah said she has printed more than 100 “Team Stacey” T-shirts and has just a handful left. Kailan added that her mother’s friends as far back as high school have asked about ways to help.

Stacey admits she is far from the energetic, outgoing person she once was, but she is determined to fight this and return to her old lifestyle. She said she hopes to be driving soon and possibly get her job back as RHS kitchen manager next fall.

Kailan said she is confident her mother will accomplish all of her goals and beat this cancer.

“I know my mom is strong,” she said. “She is very independent. She has a lot of fight in her.”