TRUCK PULL FOR LEUKEMIA

TWO FAMILIES IN NEED OF SUPPORT...

Family 1...  The Hodgson family. 

Father of Kaylee, Ryan Hodgson served in the RAAF including time at RAAF Base Tindal in Katherine NT, but not long ago when his two sons were just starting to get over a cold, Kaylee began to display signs that she had caught their bug too.  Soon after she began complaining of sore legs and her skin color was more yellow than white, so she was taken to the doctor and that is where the whirlwind began.

Within hours of their first appointment with the specialist Kaylee was having surgery for lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspirate to determine the type of leukemia Kaylee had.

Kaylee immediately began chemotherapy, but it hasn’t stopped there. The results of Kaylee’s lumbar puncture revealed that she had the genetic marker that would mean the only way forward was to undertake a bone marrow transplant.

Now Ryan and Alana have had to move the whole family to Sydney so they can continue Kaylee’s treatment.  This involves over 8 weeks of complete isolation for Kaylee and more than 100 days after that requiring them to be near the children’s hospital.

We are not able to help treat Kaylee’s condition, but we can help to alleviate some of the stress that comes with a situation like this.

The 2nd family that we are trying to assist...

I will let Weston's mum Amy Allen explain how this journey unfolded.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning in September, our vibrant, intelligent, caring and talented son Weston was diagnosed with Leukaemia. No Leukaemia is good, but this one is a little less common. It’s called Mature B Cell Leukaemia – otherwise known as Burkitt’s Leukaemia / Lymphoma and is one of the more aggressive forms of children’s cancer.  To put this in perspective, the cells duplicate every 25 hours and Weston had mild symptoms for no more than one week.  The Oncologist says that if we had delayed performing a blood test for a fortnight, he would have died. To say we are shocked is an understatement.

The plan for the next 6 months is aggressive chemotherapy, with most of the time spent in the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Survival rates are 80%, which are reasonable odds if you were placing a bet, but devastating news when you are told this about your own child.

With a hellish 6 months ahead all while trying to juggle 3 younger children (including a 6 month old), we have been fortunate enough for family and friends to rally together. This has allowed James to take time away from work and for the both of us to be by Weston's side for the duration of the treatment.