I'm stepping up against cancer!
Cancer feels pretty close to our family. Breast, Salivary gland and Prostate cancer has impacted grandparents on both sides. More recently our deeply beloved Aunty was diagnosed with Lymphoma hours from Christmas day. And then in May 2024 cancer arrived on our doorstep. Our gifted, funny, sporty 17 year old Simeon was diagnosed with Leukaemia and within hours was flying towards the Sydney Children’s Hospital where he would stay for the next 9 months. We learned that Sim’s Leukaemia was so rare, treatment protocols did not exist. To this day no one on the planet knows how to treat it. Chemotherapy was needed to prepare him for a bone marrow transplant, but the first round did not work. Simeon's life was in the balance. Sim endured multiple rounds of Chemotherapy. He developed internal bleeding ulcers. He was so nauseous for so long that he had to swallow feeding tubes shoved down his nose and the back of his throat so he didn’t stave, until he vomited again. He lost his hair and a lot of his weight. He was in excruciating pain. So bad the drugs didn’t even take the edge off. In between Chemotherapy rounds as he was preparing for his transplant he would have weeks of feeling better. Well enough to see us. The rest of the family would travel to Sydney to see him because he couldn’t come home.Our family was apart for the first time ever. Mum in Sydney with Sim during the week. Dad would swap for weekends. Everything was hard for everyone but Sim was alive and his doctors and nurses were amazing and working so hard for him. Sim was allowed home for just over a week before his bone marrow transplant. It was strange and wonderful, he was so well. He went surfing and played basketball with his friends. Preparing for the bone marrow transplant was very hard. Sim had more Chemotherapy and a total body irradiation 6 times in 3 days. The doctors told him that some kids just cannot cope with one session and end up having to be under general anaesthetic. He got really, really sick, and then he was ready. Isaac, Simeon's older brother, went into surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital on 31st October -providing stem cells for his brother in the Children's Hospital next door. We were all there. The first day of Sim’s life without Leukaemia. What we couldn’t have known on that day, was that in its place, Sim developed a common but potentially lethal complication from his transplant- Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) - where the new healthy stem cells don't recognise the body they wake up in and start to attack it. The fight to control Sim’s GVHD started in earnest December 2024. We were able to have Christmas together at a friend's house in Sydney - just our family! But Sim was getting sicker and sicker. The GVHD started with his liver and headed for his lungs with his team of doctors fighting it with everything they knew and had at their disposal. Despite the weakening of his organs, Sim was so otherwise well, his team let him move home on the last day of February 2025. He had finally come home after 9 months. Sim died on 18th may 2025. He had somehow contracted influenza B. With compromised lungs he was put on life support 24 hours after learning he had the flu and died 11 days later in the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. Being able to raise awareness and money for people affected by cancer is deeply meaningful for us. Cancer impacts everyone connected to the person receiving treatment. We received so much help and support from so many people and organisations while Sim was undergoing treatment and after his death. Every single act of help made a difference to us. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to help being provided to someone else.
So far this year I've helped provide:
