Pink 4 Piper

In July 2021 we received the news that no family should ever have to hear - our darling 4 year old daughter Piper was diagnosed with DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma), an incurable and untreatable brain tumour.

This was devastating to our family - Mum Janelle, Dad Chris and Piper's brothers, Alex (10) and Lachlan (6) - as were were told Piper would only live for 6-9 months from diagnosis.

Piper underwent the only standard palliative treatment for DIPG, being daily radiation therapy over 6 weeks. We moved our family from our home in Newcastle to Sydney for that time and supported Piper through the treatment.

Piper responded very well to radiation and the tumour shrunk significantly, doctors were confident, she would live longer than her original prognosis. Unfortunately, this was not the case and Piper passed away in February this year, just 7 months after being diagnosed.

We are so thankful for the overwhelming community support in the last 7 months. Emotional, in-kind and financial support allowed our family to make many memories with Piper, including a trip to Melbourne and a Gold Coast holiday to swim with the dolphins.

Our original GoFundMe page was set-up to make memories with Piper and we sadly can no longer do that. Our focus now is on greiving our precious girl and supporting each other and most importantly, Piper's brothers, to get through this extremely difficult time.

The emotional and financial impacts of the trauma on our family are beyond comprehension for us and we have had many friends, family and community members offer continued support and for that we are so very thankful.

We will continue to update you through this page on how we are remembering Piper and how are family are doing.