Turning Donors Into Lifelines for SickKids Hospital

Fighting for all their tomorrows

These days. the world feels overwhelming and compassion fatigue is at an all-time high. As a result, Canadians aren’t giving like they used to. SickKids hospital needed to break through. They needed to remind the world that some battles aren’t optional. And that those fighting the hardest have the most to lose.

Which got us thinking, what’s really at stake?

The truth is, when a child’s life is at risk, they’re fighting for their future, too. Their hopes, their dreams, who they’ll love, who they’ll be. This means a sick child isn’t just a patient. Every person they have the possibility of becoming is at risk, too.

Our film brings this to life through a visceral, raw and graphic metaphor. We imagined a world where a child, Olivia, is being rushed to the ER. As doctors and nurses fight for her life, she finds herself in a void, that space between life and death. There, sees all her future selves and all the possibilities life holds for her. But first she must make it through her current emergency—it’s all on the line.

We tapped director Nico Perez Veiga from Iconoclast-Merchant to carefully construct the film. We had to be methodical in how we approached the different timelines. Olivia in the operating room, Olivia’s mom in the waiting room, Olivia in the void. And all the future Olivias had to exist at the same time without confusing timelines.

To ensure clarity in the edit, we gave each timeline its own set of rules. For example: Olivia’s mom could never be seen outside the hospital. No real objects could appear in the void beyond the patient’s bed. While Olivia in the void could see her future selves clearly, her future selves could only see her as a hazy memory.

Once each universe was constructed, we needed to connect them. Here, the IV lines don’t just serve as a lifesaving device. They act as a powerful metaphor, tethering Olivia in the hospital, to Olivia in the void, to all of Olivia’s futures, demonstrating that their survival depended on Olivia’s fight in the operating room. In this way, young Olivia became the lifeline or lifeblood to each of her futures.

SickKids always works with real patients, so we had to find one who could carry this story.

And that’s when we found Olivia, who, at 11-months-old, came to SickKids to receive treatment. What made Olivia perfect for this role is that by being the hero in this story, she is living out her real future dream of being an actor. A bit of a meta moment.

Along with Olivia, we cast her mother to play her grandmother in the film. We also cast real SickKids doctors and nurses and shot in a real operating room. These decisions added to the film’s emotional authenticity.

Shot over three days, we aimed for everything to be done practically in camera, with only minimal effects applied in post. The IV lines required a massive art department presence on set, as they had to be set and reset after every take. Each scene was captured on film and in natural light. Every moment mattered. And now as the film hits market, for SickKids, the urgency doesn’t stop.

With Billie Eilish’s haunting “Everything I Wanted” as the score, the film makes an abstract future emotionally tangible and personal. It shows that donations do more than fund immediate treatments, they protect children’s tomorrows. Just like Olivia got to realize her dream of acting, donor support ensures every patient has the chance to reach theirs.

By keeping these lifelines from breaking, donors can connect themselves to patients’ futures, too.

Related: Turning Donations Into Fireflies for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation