Mackenzie is just 12 years old and facing cancer for the second time.

After more than two and a half years cancer-free, her Ewing’s sarcoma has returned. Now our beautiful, fearless girl faces intensive chemotherapy, surgery and months of treatment away from home.

Please consider making a donation if you can, to help ease the family’s financial burden, allowing them to focus on what matters most -getting Kenz and her family through this.

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Let’s show Kenz how many Keepers she has.

Kenz deserves the world to know just how special she is and why we are so passionate about supporting her and the beautiful Riddle family....

Kenzie is 12 years old, turning 13 in November, and right up until a few weeks ago she was absolutely thriving. Thriving at school, at sport, at life. She has incredible friendships, a fearless streak and that shine that never leaves those eyes. And to be honest, she still is thriving. You wouldn’t even know she’s about to face the second biggest battle of her young life.

If you know Kenz, you know the shine we mean.

She is the sweetest, kindest, bravest girl. The best friend anyone could ever ask for. She is always thinking about everyone else, never complains (even when she should!) and somehow takes whatever is thrown at her in her stride.

She has the kind of smile that takes over her whole face, with eyes that somehow seem to sparkle along with it. It's the kind of sparkle you only seem to see in those special kids who have already endured far more than they ever should in their short lives.

Kenzie is the first to put her hand up for just about anything. Hockey, soccer, surfing, skateboarding. You should see this sparkly little human on a dirt bike, flying down a zip line or jumping from heights that make the rest of us nervous just watching. Put her on a stage and she is just as fearless. Speech and drama, choir, debating, school musicals, even singing in the school rock band.

She is talented, incredibly intelligent and full of life, but what makes Kenz so special is just… Kenz. Her kindness. Her loyalty. The way she loves her people. You will find her happiest with her best friends, her beautiful family and her crazy but very cute puppy, Zulu.

And that is why the news her family has had to share is so desperately hard to comprehend.

After more than two and a half years with no evidence of disease, Kenzie’s Ewing’s sarcoma has returned.

A few weeks ago, an X-ray showed an abnormality in her arm. At that point Kenzie looked completely well, her bloods were good and there was every hope that there might be another explanation. A PET scan, MRI and biopsy followed, and the biopsy confirmed what everyone had been desperately hoping it wouldn’t - the Ewing’s sarcoma was back.

In true Kenz style, she had her moment. She cried, pulled herself back together and then became that same composed, brave "this isn't happening to me" girl we all know - while teaching her family how to be resilient when dealt devastating news.

This is the Kenzie everyone knows and loves. Her biggest worry has never seemed to be herself - it is how all of this affects the people she loves.

That almost makes it harder to watch.

Because she is twelve.

And she has already done this once.

Her family has always been open with Kenz. She sits in the appointments, hears the conversations and is part of the decisions about her own care. Some of those conversations have been confronting in ways no 12 year old should ever have to understand, from what her body can withstand after previous treatment to talking with a fertility specialist about preserving the possibility of having children one day.

And still, she keeps moving forward.

Kenz is now two days into her first round of four rounds of very high dose chemotherapy, given over five days in hospital every 21 days. Her doctors will repeat scans after two rounds to see how the tumour is responding, with surgery planned after chemotherapy. Further treatment will depend on how Kenzie responds and what ongoing testing shows.

There are positives, and her family is holding tightly to them. The tumour appears to be localised. Her doctors consider the late recurrence a positive factor. Her heart and kidney function have come back far better than feared after everything her body has already been through, which means she is heading into treatment fighting fit.

And Kenz being Kenz, one of the things she was most upset about in those first days was missing her speech and drama eisteddfod with her friends.

No fear of the hospital. No fear of the tests.

Just devastated to miss something she loves.

That tells you a lot about our girl.

It is hardly surprising that Kenzie is the kid she is when you meet the family she comes from.

Over the last few years, her family has moved from South Africa to northern New South Wales, leaving behind their family and the close community of friends they have known for years. They have built a beautiful new life here and in the process, so many of us have had the absolute privilege of getting to know and love them.

Going through childhood cancer is hard enough when you are on home soil, surrounded by people who have known you forever. Doing it again in a relatively new country, with treatment in Brisbane around two hours from home, is another level entirely.

The part that nobody really sees - the endless drives between home and Brisbane, hospital parking, accommodation, paperwork, meals on the run, time away from work, waiting rooms, needles and more needles, sleepless nights and the constant juggle of trying to keep family life going while everything revolves around treatment.

It is the practical stuff layered on top of the emotional stuff. Trying to work out what is covered and what is not. Navigating a city you do not know. Making enormous decisions when you are exhausted. Worrying about the dog at home. Trying to keep the girls entertained through long days in hospital. Tears that come out of nowhere, followed by moments of complete calm.

And somehow, through all of that, trying to still be a family.

What has stood out just as much as the fear, though, is the love around them.

Home cooked meals arriving at the door. Food vouchers. Friends checking in every day. Playlists from people who understand this road. Messages, jokes, memes and TikToks arriving at exactly the right moment. Employers showing compassion. Old friends appearing unexpectedly. Friends back in Durban picking up the phone as if no time has passed. Robs Mum getting on a plane to be here.

So many small and enormous acts of love that it would be impossible to list them all.

As a group of parents whose girls are lucky enough to call Kenz their friend, we have also grown to love this family very deeply. And like so many others around them, we have found ourselves asking the same thing: what can we do to help? We all want to help... but how?

The truth is, there are already so many costs building around this journey, and many more that are impossible to predict. Travel between home and Brisbane, accommodation, parking, meals away from home, time away from work, medical and treatment-related costs when they are not yet citizens and all the little things that add up when normal life suddenly has to be rearranged around hospital stays and treatment.

This platform gives people who care about Kenz and her family a simple way to contribute. One place where people can help, whether they are close by, back home in South Africa or any other corner of the world.

That is what Kenzie’s Keepers is about.

Kenzie turns 13 in November. A teenager.

When all of this is behind her, we honestly cannot think of anyone who deserves the biggest sparkliest celebration of a Birthday Party more than she does.

For now, it is one day at a time, one treatment at a time, one scan at a time and surrounding this beautiful, sparkly girl and her family with as much love as we possibly can.

We’ve got you Kenz, Robs, Ross and Bailey. Every step of the way.