TWICE LEUKEMIA NEED HELP & HOME

This is a critical crossroad moment, we are in a very vulnerable situation. Please take a moment to hear me. I’m writing this as if my life depends on it, and in a way it does.

This is a story of me as a father, my 2 sons and my wife of 30 years.

This is also a story of leukemia and a battling family.

My eldest son is now 18, and it has been a most difficult journey for him. To set the stage, in 2006, when he was almost 3, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Prior to this he had been in perfect health, had never been unwell and we were always very diligent about a healthy diet and lifestyle. So the diagnosis was a complete and total shock. At the time I was working as a BDM and just starting up as a new family and that changed overnight. We went from regular life to being a cancer family. He had to undergo 2 years of very intensive chemotherapy, during which time we were in-patient at the hospital, living there with him and I ended up having to take a great deal of time off work. There was financial stress, but the worst was the emotional and physical strain of seeing him go through the treatment, watching him become sick from the chemo and living day to day under the terror of the potential for the worst. For my son, he was unbelievable, even for his young age he was so  brave, strong and maintained his joyful disposition. He went through the treatment, and he came out the other end…2 very grueling, frightening years, taking their toll but doing their job leaving him cancer free. But anyone who has accompanied their child through a cancer treatment will attest, it never leaves you. Even after they are into remission and then passed as 'cured',no cold, no bruise, no anything is not considered through the lens of potential relapse even if one only permits that thought for a brief moment.

Fast forward 10 years, our son now has a brother. A blessing our 2nd son arrived just after the death of my little sister who passed away unexpectedly. His birth was a wonderful gift to our family, but especially due to the death of my sister. What was interesting to note was that my sister-in-law, who was my age, had died unexpectedly a few years ago too, and my wife and I had both experienced the losses of our little sisters.

Here we are as a family, working, educating and doing family things when out of the blue. BOOM. My son relapses. Pretty much 10 years to the day. This happened in 2018. It was literally overnight. He had been under the weather and we went for a blood test and the numbers seemed wrong, so we were advised to go to the hospital for further tests. It was the same leukemia back again, the exact same one. According to his oncologists, this is very rare, they reported not having encountered this syndrome before in clinic.

And going onto a relapse treatment protocol is also a very different thing. Not only is it far more intense, but at 14 years old it is a very different situation than being 3 years old and on chemo. The pain is worse, the emotional toll is worse and many of the chemo drugs are used at a ‘lifetime threshold’ level, often leaving children and young people infertile to mention one longterm effect. We had to start living in the hospital in-patient again. This protocol was even longer, and the hospital stays were even longer. I had to stop working all together. By now I had left the corporate world and was self-employed doing property maintenance, after the first time chemo years, Id lost my edge in sales and ended up doing this as a side earner which developed into a business. The treatment took that away. It was another 2+ year battle, again my son was a warrior, he showed greater optimism and courage than I was able to muster myself and his Mum was as amazing as she was the first time around, and my youngest was so supportive, loving, understanding and caring he proved himself beyond the call of duty. Keep in mind, during this whole 2-year period there’s also all the isolation that chemo families must undergo with a family member who is severely immune-compromised. For those who don’t know, when you’re on chemo, if the temperature rises for any reason to 38, you drop everything and run to hospital for emergency IV antiobiotics because they can die from infections we wouldnt even notice due to having no immune system. This happened to us more than once. Truly terrifying.

So in some ways, living in the chemo world prepared us for the upcoming Covid lockdown which arrived pretty much straight after our son successfully completed the 2 years of relapse chemo.

As treatment was coming to a close, we found out that we had to move again. My son was still very sick, tired, worn out and needing to move into recovery stage, but the owner was needing to renovate so we had to relocate, which was so financially draining, physically exhausting and such bad timing, but we did find another house and got ourselves moved.

So here we are the new place and we thought well at least we have some time as the landlord had said its an investment property and we could stay a good long time. My son started to recover and gain strength, we had a nice backyard, we got a couple of rabbits and hens and life started to move ahead. Then the timing could not have been worse. 

No need to explain this part, because the whole world knows about the type of impact Covid-19 has had on finances, along with everything else. For people who are in circumstances, given how tenuous things are, after the stress we have been under, the impact is brutal.

Even after the lockdown of last year, when things got back to normal, the recent hard lockdown in Sydney Australia meant for me, a non-essential, non-emergency worker, well, the work restrictions were a major blow. It’s been very difficult to bring any regular work back on the radar as people are scared, and tired and cautious and restricted.

As I type this now, the owner has stepped forward and wants to take over the property as the market is so good, he wants to sell, which means we have been asked to vacate. Very, very bad timing in the midst of Sydney's shutdown.

With no savings to access and staring down the barrel of more time off available work, we are in desperate need of a financial lift to help us through this time. Im imploring anyone who’s reading this to help in any way that they can. Our struggles over the last 10 years have often been devastating and I don’t want things to get worse, or to face homelessness, or to be unable to get through the basics. Thanks be to God that my son has recovered from his second battle, I wish long ago Id had the opportunity to buy a house back in the days when it was more viable to do so. For myself as a Dad, the news of this badly timed move right on the tail end of basically 4 years in a 'lockdown' has really taken its toll on me mentally and physically. Im anxious, Im disassociating, Im not eating or sleeping well and  I dont really know what to do other than to pray that my words will reach one of you out there and there may be help for my family.

We need a house, somewhere to finally call home and put down roots. These are legitimate hard times, Im casting this out there because I truly need assistance for everything from a bond and rent in advance to moving costs, groceries, pretty much across the board, I just do not want to lose anymore, everything is riding on this moment. I thank you for any help you can offer.