Hello, on behalf of Sondra Carey (Sonny) and her family, we are reaching out to the public, family & friends for support, after the devastating diagnosis received of 6 year old little Amarni

Stage 2 Kidney Cancer - Wilms Tumor also known as Nephroblastoma

On Tuesday March 24 the day began as normal until little Amarni complained of a sore tummy later in the day. She eventually went off to sleep but on Wednesday woke in pain and was struggling to walk. Mum Sonny took her to the doctor and was told it was most likely anxiety!!! Sonny demanded further investigation as she wasnt comfortable with that excuse. Thankfully her 'Mum instinct' didnt give in.....but sadly their lives changed in the next few hours.

An Ultra Sound was arranged for later Wednesday afternoon. After the scan, Sonny called into the chemist as she believed Amarni had a temperature. While at the chemist Amarni began vomitting. At the same time Sonny received a phone call no parent ever wants to receive.

The Ultra Sound showed a mass in Amarnis right kidney and it was bleeding. Sonny rushed Amarni straight to the Burnie Regional Hospital. Amarni was admitted.

Within the next 24 hours, there were all the dreaded talks of possible diagnoses, surgery, treatments, Hobart, Melbourne etc....

Amarni, with her mum Sonny, were transferred to the Royal Hobart Hospital late on Thursday night. There were talks also of the possibility of being sent to Melbourne.

A CT Scan & MRI, plus numerous blood tests were endured by little Amarni in the days leading up to Monday 30th of March, when Amarni had a 6 hour surgery to remove her whole right kidney and some lymph nodes. Amarni required 3-4 blood transfusions during surgery and remained in ICU for over 24 hours.

The sore tummy and pain Amarni experienced was the bleeding from the mass/tumor.

Monday was an extremely hard day for Sonny, waiting, while her youngest daughter was in surgery. The following days were a nightmare! How do you explain to a child why she keeps vomitting? Why is she in pain? Why she has tubes coming out of several parts of her little body? Why she has to be careful moving.....NO child should have to endure these things.

Amarni slowly began to recover from surgery, she is a tough little cookie, she is full on and full of wit, BUT, she has a hard road ahead of her.....the whole family do.

On Friday April 17th, Amarni is back in for surgery to have a 'port' put in place ready for Chemotherapy. She will also have a 'good' cannula put in her little arm for the first round of chemo on Friday. The port will be ready to use the following week for the remainder of chemo.

Amarni will need 6 months of chemo weekly in Hobart and in 3 months time she will need to go to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne for Radiation Therapy under sedation for a week.

As I write this, we are waiting for results of one more test from Melbourne and hopefully the results will be good OR there will be a second type of chemo added to the treatment plan.

This families lives have been turned upside down within just a few hours. Sonny is a sole mum to 3 children, Harley 11, Katara 9 & Amarni 6. Sonny was working part time as a support worker, trying to make a better future for her children. She will now need to drop hours to take care of Amarni and all the regular appointments, travelling and over night stays for treatment.

On the Friday, March 27th, Sonny was approved to buy her first home, something she had been working hard to achieve since losing her Dad, only months before also to cancer. She wanted a secure home for her children. Sonny now has the worry of packing, cleaning and moving into their new home while trying to come to terms with her daughters health. The funds she had put aside for the the new home are going to be needed for travelling etc.

She is trying to be strong and not be upset in front of Amarni. She DID NOT want to ask for or accept help, we had to convince her to let us help make things easier in the most difficult of times.

Please, if you can spare even $1.00, it will be greatly appreciated and add towards something we can do to make their lives a little less stressful in this terribly sad time.

If you would prefer to donate directly to Sonny's bank account or Pay Id, the details are below:

BSB: 067872

ACC NO: - 18841760

We would appreciate also if you could share this to your families & friends.

Thankyou xx

Update last monday at Amarnis appointment for chemo we found out the other results have come back. They have found another mutation in the tumor so now they have to add a third chemo into the mix because the mutation they have found means that it could spread and appear else where. So with the three they are trying to hit it from every single angle possible. 

Amarni starts having 3 lots of chemo this week 01.06.26