Help Ollie and His Family Create Precious Memories While He Receives Life-Saving Treatment in the USA

On the 27th of March 2025, 8 month old Ollie Stap suddenly became unwell. By the 4th of April, a golf ball size tumour was discovered and Ollie was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the prostate. Within days, Ollie underwent immediate chemotherapy at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

For the next six weeks, Ollie was omitted to the Kookaburra Cancer Ward. His parents, Kelsey & Julian were by his side. Ollie’s 4 year old big brother, Hudson, was forced to stay home with family in Swan Hill, 4 hours away in the attempt to keep some sense of normalcy as Kels & Jules navigated Ollie’s diagnosis and treatment plan that they were all suddenly enduring.

After long weeks apart, the family reunited in an Airbnb close to the hospital in Melbourne. They spent three more weeks there together for Ollie’s treatment before returning home to Swan Hill. This Air BnB has become a second home for Kels, Jules, Huddy & Ollie with the exhausting routine of travelling to Melbourne every 3 weeks for treatment, and numerous additional emergency trips due to complications and infections along the treatment journey.

While the family was grateful to be together, the sacrifices that needed to be made along the way by all are immense.

Kels has lived the past 9 months of her life with her heart in two places - at the hospital by Ollie’s side and in yearning for Huddy wherever the circumstance placed him. Kels has first hand knowledge of what chemo does to a person, having gone through her own Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer journey several years ago.

Jules has had to manage his time, running between Swan Hill and Melbourne, making the eight hour round trip in a day to support his family while juggling work and their family business and everything in between.

Huddy has missed the majority of his 3 year old Kinder year, play dates with friends and cousins, activities including swimming lessons, play dates, birthday parties etc due to the risks of infecting his autoimmune compromised little brother Ollie. The family have lived semi isolated to ensure Ollie’s health remains the priority.

Ollie has endured more general anaesthetics than most people face in a lifetime. He has had countless scans and tests, lives with a Hickman line in his chest as well as a nasogastric tube in his nose. Yet he carries on learning to crawl, walk and play with Huddy while maintaining his cheeky grin.

After 9 rounds of chemotherapy, Ollie recently underwent surgery in hopes that Brachytherapy would be possible as his next stage of treatment. Devastatingly, his tumour is still too large.

The next - and only- option is Proton Therapy, a life saving technology that precisely targets cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue, a form of radiotherapy. A treatment that is NOT available in Australia.

This means Ollie and his family MUST make the life saving trip to Florida, USA to undergo treatment.

The family are eagerly awaiting confirmation that the Australian Government will cover Ollie’s treatment and flights for him & one parent but the reality is that Ollie needs his village by his side. His dedicated parents and his big brother, Hudson.

Every donation will go to Ollie, Hudson, Kelsey & Julian to help them focus on what matters most. Being together! Your support will help them create precious memories in between treatments - a trip to the beach, various small adventures as a family or even a cheeky Vegas wedding (its time Jules) or to support general living costs in another country.

Ollie’s little life has been defined by unimaginable courage, loads of love and more resilience that one can imagine a child could have. While the finish line remains out of sight for Ollie at this stage, your generosity can help light his way back to living a normal, happy, hospital free life with his family beside him every step of the way.