Hi My name is Pip, I am a mother of two and I am writing on behalf of my son Monty and my family.

Our little boy Monty 13 months old was diagnosed with T -ALL Leukaemia 2 weeks ago after I went to the doctor to seek help for unexplained bruising that he was experiencing.

Our world was instantly turned upside down within moments of the diagnosis. Monty’s blood confirmed Leukaemia at our local hospital. This was 1 hour after going to my GP and receiving a referral for a blood test.

Upon diagnosis, I was told Monty had leukaemia & we would be in hospital for 6-9months of intense treatment & he will have a 2 year treatment plan.

For those who don’t know the full story of Monty and what is ahead of him I’ll explain what we know so far below.

Our son Monty is 13months old and will now spend the next 2 years of his life fighting cancer. Before these results he was a busy active boy. He had just turned 1. Monty was was starting to learn new words. He loved riding a trike, scooting & kicking a ball like his big brother. Monty has always been healthy and had barely been to the doctor other than basic check ups.

I went into hospital with Monty -13months old, on Tuesday 5th aug. He was diagnosed with Leukaemia and was transferred Randwick children's hospital that night via ambulance. We then spent an intense 5 days with Monty in CICU whilst a team of specialist doctors and nurses got him stable.

He got very sick, very fast and his organs were not able to filter the by-product of the cancer cells breaking down his white blood cells.

Once he was stable and out of ICU we then went onto the oncology ward. He under went surgery for his central line & was given his first chemo treatment. We received a treatment plan from our specialist on what the first month will be. This is called the induction phase of the treatment.

Monty responded really well to his first 8 days of treatment in hospital, reaching the targets that the doctors aim for and we were able to leave the ward and isolate at the Ronald McDonald house (next to hospital) whilst we got short term housing sorted for ourselves, to allow us to be close to the hospital. My husband Steve and Sid had been staying at the RMH whilst I was in hospital with Monty. RMH helped immensely to have them close by as I was unable to leave Monty’s side.

Monty’s first month/ months of treatment will be very intense and critical. We will have multiple treatments at the hospital multiple times per week ontop of 3x daily meds. Each stage of his treatment will be determined based on how his body responds to the medication and fights the cancer cells.

Upon diagnosis, we were advised that we need to be living close to the hospital incase any unexpected temperatures, illness or responses to the medication occur throughout the period of treatment. If this occurs we immediately present to Randwick Children’s Hospital.

We are now isolating to protect Monty’s compromised immune system whilst having 3-4 treatments in hospital per week.

To keep our family together and protect Monty we had to uproot our Son Sid’s life & we have since enrolled our son Sid into the Hospital school kindergarten so we can keep our family together during Monty’s treatment and have some normality for Sid on a day to day basis.

Doctors are hopeful and positive despite how serious it is. Every blood test has been showing positive progress. Monty is 2 weeks into a long hard journey ahead. He is still smiling throughout the day amongst taking multiple medication 3 x a day from us (which in itself is a tough feat for a 13month old boy) on-top of his many scheduled chemo & medical treatments at the hospital.

We feel so blessed to be in a country that has an incredible health care system. The team of doctors and nurses are absolutely amazing. We feel very supported & informed that we are in the best place for Monty’s treatment.

Whilst mentally processing Monty’s diagnosis over the past 2 weeks and being at the hospital we have had to relocate our family to Sydney which will likely be for 6 months. We now will have to support a second household in Sydney which will prove to be difficult and add an intense extra load whilst we support Monty throughout his treatment. I will no longer work and my husband will work remotely to support us.

I am telling Monty’s story because any help, support, prays and thoughts from our community will help us - we want to keep our boys Monty and Sid together and have a home for our family to be together to get through this as we navigate Leukaemia with our son.

We know times are tough for many but any contribution - big or small - will help us ease the financial burden and allow us to focus on Monty’s fight. We are so grateful if anyone has the capacity to donate in support of us and Monty on his battle with cancer. If you’re not able to donate, simply sharing this page means the world to us.

From the bottom of our hearts, thankyou for standing with Monty. Your love, prayers & generosity gives us strength to keep going.