Let's get Mac back to full health!

On Wed 15th November 2023, life changed for Gill and Guy and their family. They got news that no parent, no family, no one, wants to face. They found out that Cormac, their 14-year-old son, has a very serious form of cancer. The shock and despair of this terrible news was made even worse because the cancer has damaged Mac’s spinal cord, which means he can’t walk.

Gill and Guy Downes and their kids, Mila, Cormac, and Ethan are a country family deeply connected to the Uralla, Armidale and Tamworth communities in northern NSW. Many people will know Gill from The Armidale School (TAS), where she is Director of Teaching and Learning and a Senior English teacher. And Guy from the cartoons, animations and illustrations he creates for businesses all over the place, and the great murals he paints on the walls of regional pre-schools and kindergartens.

In just a couple of weeks, their lives have changed beyond recognition. Gone are the ups and downs all families deal with. Replaced by something very different. Something no one wants.

Mac, with his Mum and Dad, was flown from Armidale to Newcastle for tests and operations. Then, on to Sydney to start treatment, and face more surgeries. And rehab. Meanwhile, Mila and Ethan are at home, in Uralla, trying to make sense of it all. Trying to get on with school and life.

But there was no escaping the fact, one of those ‘sliding doors moments’—one of those things that happens in other people’s lives—had snapped open in Mac’s life. There is no going back, only a long, hard and deeply uncertain journey ahead for Mac, for Gill and Guy, for the whole family.

There is treatment. But there’s no certainty about how the cancer will respond. There is rehab, but no one knows if Mac will walk again. There is hope, and love, and determination. But no one knows what the future holds.

Mac is showing amazing strength and resilience—finding moments of joy between the pain and fear. He is holding on to hope while facing the most difficult challenge. Humble and tough, he is taking one day at a time. With bravery way beyond his years.

But, Mac will be in hospital in Sydney for a long time, even if things go well. Then, he’ll have to stay in Sydney, for most of 2024, close to the hospital, for the treatment, the ongoing rehab, and the slow, hard journey into his uncertain future.

The practical and financial impact, for the whole family, is unexpected and huge. Gill and Guy must stay in Sydney too, so they’ll need to rent, live and sustain themselves in the city. Meanwhile, they’ll have to take turns travelling back and forth to Uralla, to raise and support their other kids. All this with little opportunity to work.

The initial target for this fund-raiser has been set to cover travel costs the family is incurring at a rapid rate. Flight costs are already at $3,000 and set to grow in the coming weeks as the family gets Mac through his first round of treatment. We plan to increase the target in future once we have a better idea of the real cost of renting the apartment in Sydney and Mac's rehabilitation plan. Future costs are likely to run into multiple tens of thousands, but hitting this initial target as soon as possible will remove immediate stress from the family allowing them to focus purely on Mac's care between now and the end of December.

They need our help.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Right now, it will take far more of us to help a family facing every family’s nightmare.

Please give generously—help give Mac and his family their best shot at getting through this very dark time.