Grade-schooler losing her sight puts Paris and Kansas City on her bucket list

By Betsy Webster

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (KCTV) — Giggles dominated our interview with Breia Lastovka. That, and corrections. She is not 6 years old; she is 6 and a half years old.

The things she likes are typical for her age. Her favorite animals? “Unicorns, horsies and Pegasus,” she replied.

But, the genetic condition she’s had from birth is rare. She can only see in black and white. It wasn’t until last year that doctors finally figured out her declining vision was due to Alström syndrome, which causes vision loss over time. She could eventually develop hearing loss, obesity and heart problems, to name but a few.

“Her doctors told us the last time we were there a couple Fridays ago that we should live her life like she’s going to lose her vision tomorrow, because she very well could,” said her mom Alyssa Lastkova. So, they asked her for a bucket list.

“Because I want to see everything before I go fully blind,” Breia Lastkova said with a slight sadness in her voice. “I’m just really sad. I just don’t want to go fully blind.”

But, she switched to laughing in a matter of seconds.

Her first wish was to work in a coffee shop that runs out of a horse trailer near her home in Granger, Iowa. She checked that off her list. Next, she went to Disney World to see Cinderella’s Castle. She’d like to see the Eiffel Tower in France, Christmas at Rockefeller Center, and Niagara Falls. Those are still on the maybe list. The Eiffel Tower would be the Vegas version. She wants to see the mountains, so there’s a trip to Colorado coming in September. But then, she brought up Kansas City.

“I want to see everything there,” she said.

Asked why, she couldn’t say. Not to us and not to her parents.

“She was like, ‘I don’t know. I just really want to see it,’” her mom recounted. Her parents will be taking her to Donutology because she loves donuts maybe more than unicorns.

“I can eat all the donuts,” Breia said. “Chocolate donut, vanilla donut, every single donut.”

The National World War I Museum and Memorial will be taking her to the top of the memorial. They’ll hit the Nelson-Atkins Museum because she loves art.

“Even though she can’t see colors, she can see the shades of them, and she really loves colorful things,” her mother explained. She also took us up on our offer to come to KCTV to do the weather. She’ll be visiting the weekend of Aug. 5.

Her bubbly attitude is an inspiration to her parents.

“Just seeing her, how happy she is even though she’s going through all this, it definitely makes you think that there’s no bad days,” said her dad Sean Lastovka.

And, it’s not just Disney princesses and donuts that make her happy. “Well, I do like my parents. They do good things,” Breia said.

“We love you too,” her mom replied, prompting Breia to go in for a snuggle.

She also wants to see North Carolina and Wisconsin. She gave no reason for those either. Her parents say they just popped out as she made the list.

They set up a travel fundraiser online for family to donate. The goal was $2,000. They’ve raised $10,000 with the help of 150 strangers.

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