Go fund me

In February this year our darling Lottie was diagnosed with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

What began as fevers and suspicious bruising, led to an emergency visit at the John Hunter Hospital and a blood test that revealed an extremely elevated white blood cell count, higher than most of the oncologists had ever seen. In what felt like the blink of an eye, every parent’s worst nightmare became our reality.

After spending the first week in intensive care fighting for her life, Lottie was stable enough to continue treatment on the oncology ward and begin the “long game”. The oncologist explained that Lotties treatment had to be as aggressive as her cancer, and that the road would be rugged. So far she has not been wrong. Those first 8 weeks spent in hospital were particularly gruelling, watching as our beautiful, charismatic, energetic little girl was reduced to a shell of a human. Since then we have been in and out of hospital for chemo, medication, lumbar punctures, scans, fevers and transfusions. Some short visits, and others for weeks at a time battling brutal chemo complications.

We still have 5 months of ‘intense’ treatment to go before we enter the ‘maintenance’ phase, which will be another 12 months of chemotherapy, mostly from home.

Throughout this “journey” we have had the most wonderful support from our family and friends and we could not be surviving all of this without them. Lottie’s big sister Maeve has been so caring, understanding and sweet, rubbing her tummy and reading her books when she’s unwell. And Pearl, who was only 5 months old when it all began, has been right by my side (*boob) for all of the ups and downs, bringing smiles and joy wherever she goes.

Lottie has been so brave, facing things no child should ever have to face. She is strong in her mind and body, and although she has lost the strength to walk many times now, she continuously pushes herself to get back on her feet. She has lost her hair over and over, which for us is heartbreaking, but Lottie just takes it in her stride and gets on with it, taking any opportunity, when she feels well enough, to sing, dance and play with her sisters.

Throughout the year many of you have asked how you can help, so I have decided to create this page to raise as much money as possible for these three incredible organisations:

The leukaemia foundation, who among many other things, fund cutting edge research leading to life saving new treatments. We don’t plan on relapsing, but knowing we can make a contribution to an organisation whose goal is to “make sure zero lives are lost to blood cancer by 2035” makes me so hopeful for our Lottie’s future, and for the future of all the little darlings unlucky enough to be fighting along side of her.

Red kite, who have provided us with emotional, financial and practical support.

And the Ronald McDonald family room which we visit almost daily some weeks, for cups of tea, meals, washing and a place for the girls to play while their sister is receiving treatment.

Seeing your names and reading your comments will give us the strength we need at this point to carry on.

Somehow we are nearly 9 months into Lottie’s treatment, and we continue to count down the days, weeks, months and blocks until Lottie can ring that bell.

Thank-you for reading Lottie’s story, and for your care and generosity.

Liv and Sam xo