Let's help Eliza with her leukemia battle

Dear All,

My name is Jen. Lisa is the cousin of my brother-in-law. I was absolutely devasted to hear of the news that little four-year-old Eliza has leukemia. I'm not local and therefore cannot offer help with meals, etc. I can, however, offer financial assistance to help relieve the emotional and financial burden Lisa and Nathan now face. Please help if you can!

Here's Lisa's story:

A routine blood test that has changed our lives.

Last weekend I noticed Eliza had quite a lot of bruises on her legs, anyone that knows her, knows she is such a active child. I thought she may be low in iron or could be anaemic. I booked a doctors appointment for Thursday. We went to the doctors, then went for a routine blood test. We picked Evelyn up from school, went home. My phone rang and I answered it, it was my doctor, he told me Eliza’s blood tests had come back and we needed to go to ED to be admitted for future tests, he said the blood test looked to be leukaemia but we needed more tests to rule it out. Nathan was in Sydney, how was I going to ring Nathan to tell him over the phone I needed to go to ED with Eliza and what the doctor thought it could be?! That was one of the hardest phone calls. I got Evelyn organised for school for Friday and my mum arrived. I thought we would be in hospital for the night and we would be able to pick Evelyn up from school on Friday. That wasn’t the case. The hospital doctor said we need to give Eliza a platelet transfusion as well as a blood transfusion and we would be taken to Westmead hospital for further tests. Friday morning we were taken to Westmead by road ambulance. We arrived and met Nathan at the hospital, the doctors took us into a room and told us Eliza has Leukaemia. How could that be true?! She is a healthy active child. I wanted to take her home, have a few days together as a family before she had to have more tests on Monday, they told me no, she can’t leave the hospital she is too sick. How were we going to tell our family, how were we going to tell Evelyn her sister is very, very sick?! It was the worst day of our lives. Nathan went home to be with Evelyn over the weekend, he came back to the hospital on Sunday. Yesterday Eliza went into surgery to start her long journey ahead of us. Eliza and I will be calling Sydney home for the next 6+ months. Yes 6 months or more depending on how she responds to the chemotherapy. In the next few days we will find out more about the leukaemia she has. Please keep our Eliza in your prayers, she has a long road ahead of her. The treatment will take 2 years all going well. It’s going to be the hardest time of our lives. Our girls have never spent time apart from each other (other than at school), it’s going to be a hard journey for them as they are inseparable.