Help Tiana St Baker receive life saving treatment

Hi, my name is Anna Melvin. I have started this fundraiser for a dear family friend. Please read Tiana's story below.

On the 13th of November 2021, Tiana and her little family were home (Griffith) from Canberra for her Nonna’s birthday (Judy Corradi) and to visit her Dad (Mark St Baker) who had just spent some time in St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney.

She decided she was too unwell to attend her Nonna’s birthday dinner at Il Corso as she had a headache. The headache became progressively worse over night causing her to black out, faint, and throw up. Her Mother (Monica St Baker) decided that this had to be more than a headache and called 000. Tiana’s partner (Lyle) and Monica followed the ambulance up to the hospital where Monica asked for a CT of her head to be done. The CT came back indicating that there was a tumour like mass on Tiana’s brain. No one at Griffith Base could confirm what it was and she was urgently flown to St George hospital in Sydney for more tests.

In the days following, there were two medical teams working with Tiana. One was a neurological team to work out what was happening in her brain, the other was a haematology team as her bloods were indicating there may be blood cancer present. The two teams worked together to determine if the mass on her head was related or a separate issue. Tiana underwent surgery on her brain to obtain a biopsy of the mass which the neurologists identified as Myeloid Sarcoma, a rare form of Leukemia that can present as physical masses in the skin and muscle tissue. The neurosurgeons didn’t remove the rest of the mass allowing it to be treated by chemotherapy.

After the diagnosis of a rare genetically mutated Acute Myeloid Leukemia with Myeloid Sarcoma, which is highly unusual, Tiana was sent back to Canberra to immediately start chemotherapy treatment. After one round of chemo, Tiana was in remission and needed to complete 3 lots of consolidation chemo. This is when we thought we were in the clear!

Two months later, some routine tests indicated that the Myeloid Sarcoma had returned, and Tiana had officially relapsed. She has now started chemo again with urgent plans for a bone marrow transplant that her brother (Ethan St Baker) has been identified as a full match for. The transplant requires Ethan to attend physical assessments and medical reviews and have injections twice daily in the weeks leading up to the donation which is supposed to happen at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Ethan and his family live in Kalgoorlie, WA and due to COVID cannot come over to Sydney for any of the required tests or donation appointments. St Vincent’s have liaised with The Fiona Stanley Cancer Centre in Perth hospital to arrange his appointments to happen over there. Monica and Ethan will fly to Perth to have all the required tests done to prepare for the donation.

Once the donation is retrieved from Ethan, it will be frozen and sent to St Vincent’s in Sydney. Tiana will require some conditioning in the days leading up to the Bone Marrow transplant where she will be given extremely high doses of Chemotherapy and full body radiation (TBI) to wipe her entire system of any cancer cells which also stops her bone marrow from producing any new blood cells. From there, Ethan’s stem cells will be given to Tiana via a central line in her chest with the aim to make their way into Tiana’s system and form new bone marrow. Whilst this is happening the newly formed stem cells of Ethan’s will make their way around Tiana’s body to fight off any of Tiana’s blood cells (and leukaemia cells) if they find any. Essentially, Tiana will take on an entirely new blood system and DNA structure - Ethan’s.

During this process Tiana is required to spend a minimum of 100 days in Sydney to ensure the transplant works. She will be highly susceptible to infection as she will have no immune system around this time whilst waiting to see if the transplant is successful.

Lyle will go to Sydney with Tiana during this time and they will pull their two year old (Jesse) out of day care in Canberra, and move him to Griffith throughout the time they are required to stay in Sydney so that he can live with Mark and Monica. There is a chance Tiana can be discharged 4-8 weeks after the transplant but will still be required to stay in Sydney for at least 100 days. During this time Mark and Monica will try and take Jesse to Sydney as much as possible so he can see his parents, but it will really depend on Tiana’s health and if it is medically safe for her to see him.

This page has been established in the hope that we can help this family financially while they are paying for flights, accommodation, having a significant time off work, and an all-around rough time! It takes a village to care for our own, and currently Tiana, Lyle and Jesse really need this village to support them.