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PROVO -- Nine-year-old Tiffany Searle from American Fork has a disease that has baffled doctors for years. Although they still have no official diagnosis, they are quite certain Tiffany has a short time to live; so hundreds of people got together recently to give her one final wish.
One year of age, Tiffany took her first steps. Two years later, she was running races with her father, Scott Searle.
"She was always a loving child. She would always run up and give you a hug," Scott recalls. "She'd just take off. She loved to run."
Now age 9, Tiffany can run no more.
"When she was about 4 and a half, she started stumbling and things," Tiffany's mother, Valarie, said. "We started seeing doctors, and test, after test, after test, and here we are four and a half years later: no diagnosis, but it's a nerve-muscular disorder, and it's just shutting her whole body down,"
Today, Tiffany's body weighs just 26 pounds. A hospice nurse checks on her daily.
"The doctors just said, ‘You know what? You need to make a choice, and so we chose to put her on hospice so we could be home,'" Valerie said.
"Two weeks ago they told me two weeks to six weeks, just because of the things that are starting to shut down," Valerie said, choking back tears.
At this stage, communication is difficult, so the family uses hand signals.
"You just squeeze and say, ‘I love you forever,' and then she'll do it back four times," Valerie said.
"When I got Tiffany home, I asked her what her wish would be," Steve said. "She said, "Dad, I want to run.' I said, ‘Tiffany, that may be hard. Do you have a second wish?' And she said, ‘Dad, I just want to run.'"
Thanks to Make-A-Wish, Scott and Tiffany were able to run one last time.
"Wow! This is overwhelming. This is awesome!" Scott said.
Hundreds of family and friends packed the Smith Fieldhouse at BYU to cheer them on. Placed in a customized jogger, Tiffany was ready for the race of her life.
Several people ran alongside Tiffany in her one-mile run. One person who came was Tiffany's big surprise: BYU quarterback Max Hall came from Arizona to surprise his biggest fan.
Hall first met Tiffany two years ago.
"Tiffany, you look great!" Hall said.
"She doesn't have much time, so we appreciate it. It means a lot to us," Scott told Hall.
Hall pushed Tiffany the last 50 yards, crossing the finish line together.
Tiffany won her final race, and though her legs may no longer run, her hand and heart said it all: "I love you forever."
Thursday night, Tiffany's family helped her raise her star at the Make-A-Wish facility in Murray. If you'd like to find out more, log on to www.helptiffany.org.
E-mail: kaiken@ksl.com
