Help Support the Hume Family

Hi, my name is Nicole and I am writing on behalf of my sisters, Leilani & Samantha, and parents, Warren & Sarah. For those of you who know our family, you would know that the last few years have been quite a journey for us. To say it's been the most challenging years of our lives would be an understatement.

 

For anyone who may not be familiar with our story, in June 2018, our beautiful mum was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer. She underwent major surgery to remove the tumours that had adhered to her reproductive organs and bowel and endured five months of an intense chemotherapy schedule that left her with life-long neuropathy in her feet. Thankfully her prognosis was still promising and mum walked away cancer-free in January 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

Within six months of mum's clearance, our dad was having significant difficulty breathing and was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (lung disease) and Lung Cancer. Unfortunately, his prognosis was much worse than mum's. We were told that his diseases were incurable and in fact, the two diagnoses made options for treatment very limited. Without any chemotherapy, dad had 3-6 months to live, give or take. He had always professed that he wasn't keen on treatment, but faced with the reality of his prognosis, he decided to go ahead with chemo. After about a year of treatment, he decided the side effects weren't worth it and wanted to focus on spending time with his family. We understood chemo was only offered to slow down the progression of cancer and was expected to increase his life span to about 12-18 months. We've been blessed to have him with us for 3 years!

 

 

Sadly, over the past couple of years, Dad's condition has been touch and go with complications arising every few months including recurring infections, a collapsed lung, covid, and most recently, symptoms that have led to a secondary diagnosis of Bladder Cancer and subsequently, a kidney stone that is yet to pass.

 

 

If we thought our lives couldn't handle any more adversity, 4 weeks ago we discovered Mum has developed aggressive Triple Negative Breast Cancer for which she has undergone surgery to remove the cancerous tissue and will be starting chemotherapy treatment this week. Once a fortnight she'll receive treatment for 8 weeks that will cause her hair to fall out and strong side effects due to the strength of these particular drugs, following 12 weeks of weekly chemotherapy that has a high likelihood of exacerbating her neuropathy. We're also waiting on genetic testing results to come through, as with mum's two cancers, there may be a genetic mutation that could have caused this and may be hereditary. This information will affect treatment after chemotherapy and could make the difference between undertaking radiation therapy or surgery to remove the risk of cancer reoccurring. All of these factors obviously take a huge emotional toll on our family as we prepare to take care of mum through this season and anticipate genetic results.

 

Dad's condition has simultaneously deteriorated in the past month to the point where two of us have had to resign from work and defer tertiary studies to help care for dad full time. Collectively, that means that in addition to caring for 10 children between us, we are taking care of dad's basic needs like eating, toileting, showering, and administering medications to allow him to be with us until his time comes when he will pass at home - just as he wished. At this stage he is getting weaker and weaker by the day, confusion has set in and we are anticipating that his deterioration will happen quicker than we think.

 

 

Mum and Dad have exhausted all avenues of insurance payments to support them through the last few years and once dad passes Mum will no longer be eligible for government assistance to care for him, so current and future income is limited.

 

Our circumstances have forced us to set all pride aside and accept help from those who have offered. Therefore, with humbled hearts, we ask for help from anyone who is able and has been touched or blessed by Mum & Dad in their life to assist us in affording basic needs like groceries, bills, alternative therapies for both mum and dad, and incidentals surrounding funeral preparations. 

 

We understand this is not a possibility for all but we say thank you to whoever feels in their heart to give and those who have already helped or supported our family in other ways. We pray that you will be blessed by your gift.

 

Much love and many thanks,

 

The Hume daughters.