Hi, I'm Jo and I am starting this GoFundMe, with permission, to help the Gentle family get through a tricky time.

On the 16th of December 2025, Scott had surgery to rectify a reflux problem. He had been on the waitlist for this surgery for 10 years suffering with extreme reflux, unable to eat and often waking up in the midst of throwing up. The issue has affected the whole family as Scott has been unable to sleep or eat normally. Five days after the original surgery, Scott was finally discharged from hospital however he was only at home for less than 24 hours as his oesophagus perforated and he began experiencing extreme pain, this was coupled with pneumonia. He underwent emergency surgery to repair the perforation only to find out that he had another hole in his oesophagus a few days later.

By this time, he had already missed spending Christmas and his birthday with his three young girls and was now looking at spending the New Year in the hospital. The girls are missing their dad terribly and this has really impacted their summer holidays and festive season. Scott has also developed an infection and blood clots while one of his wounds has also re-opened. He has now been told that he will not be back to normal for another 6 weeks (8 weeks in total) when he was only meant to be out of action for two weeks.

Scott is a 37 year old casual worker who is the main earner in the family supporting his wife and three young children. Being unemployed for 8 weeks is going to take a huge toll on the financial situation of the family especially after Christmas when funds are already low. Scott has signed up for Centrelink support for this time however, the payments received will only cover approximately 70% of the bills for the household. They have calculated that they will have an approximate $3,000 deficit at the end of all this (assuming no further complications pop up and the estimated recovery time is accurate). I am hoping to raise funds to assist in covering this deficit to ensure that the family can get through this rough time without being in huge amounts of debt by the end of it. If you have a few dollars to spare, we would really appreciate your support. If you can't afford it, please feel free to send through a message of support to Scott or Julia as they need as many good wishes as they can get at this stage.