Help Little Mikaela

Our baby girl Mikaela was diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma (a rare form of cancer that affects the liver) in April this year. She hadn’t even turned two when she first landed up in hospital on Easter Sunday this year (2020). Our family had just moved to Australia which was just beginning to see the impact of Corona.

We had barely moved into a rented house and managed to unpack our bags when we received the devastating news. We hadn’t even been able to find a job in an economy that was hit badly by the corona virus. We thought the worst was over when Mikaela had Kawasaki disease in October 2019. She had barely recovered but this news just broke us.
What followed was intense chemotherapy, a multitude of scans. We watched our healthy baby girl go from a child full of life to one who was often too weak to even take more than a few steps. She turned pale, was constantly in pain, lost her appetite and her beautiful hair. She would spend weeks in hospital, where she received exceptional care,  strong pain killers and anti biotics which brought with it side effects of their own, but it really knocked us.

Our 4-year-old son, Luke, had to try and process what was happening. He had to deal with something that no child should have to experience at his age. He would often go for weeks without even seeing Mikaela. We tried to get them to see each other over a video-call but Mikaela was often too ill to respond to her big brother who was longing to give her one of his warm hugs (objectively the best hugs in the world). It was rough for a little boy who really loves his little sister.

Even as we dealt with that CT scans revealed that the tumours had spread all over Mikaela’s liver and her only hope according to her amazing doctor was a life-saving liver transplant. Her transplant needed to be done in Sydney and we had just two days to pack and leave for what would be a 3 and a half month stay.

We were incredibly blessed to have found a match for her in August. After a 14 hour long transplant surgery we finally saw her. It was an image that we will never forget. Our daughter on life-support, on a ventilator, with at least 18 different pumps and drains running.
It has been 3 months now that she had a transplant and we are happy to report that Mikaela is soldiering on. She is thriving with her new liver, has regained her strength, rediscovered her appetite and even got some of her hair back.

In october she managed to twist her foot a few times and ended up in a moon boot because a bone scan showed 3 fractures in her metacarpal bones. This happened  as a side effect of chemo in combination with nutrition ( or lack thereof) which led to low bone density.

She will be on anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life and more than half a dozen other medications for the first six months at least. We need help with her mounting hospital and medical bills. These last few months of not working and having to pay bills has completely devastated our savings.

We know our worries dont end here because the anti rejection medication and her new liver bring with it new challenges but we have learnt to take one day at a time and enjoy this bubbly little girl that shes become.

We ask for your help in getting our little girl the medications she needs so that she can have a shot at living the life she deserves. It would also go a long way in helping us with our rent and bills.

Your generosity and prayers  will never be forgotten.  


Gillian and viren