Talk Like a Pirate Day™ – How Your Money Helps

Since 1975, Childhood Cancer Support has been assisting and housing families who have been affected by childhood cancer. We understand the needs of each child and family are unique, so we are passionate about providing comfortable, clean and homely living arrangements that cater to individual family circumstances.

Hayley – 19 months

Every cancer family will say the same thing; you never think it will happen to you or anybody you know. June 16, 2016 is when our lives changed. Before this, life was filled with laughter, fun and all the regular routines and worries that come with raising a little toddler.

Having my beautiful girl Hayley diagnosed at 19 months old with Stage 4 Hepatoblastoma (Liver Cancer) is quite honestly the most scariest thing you could ever hear. You feel numb, and yet you have to be strong. Strong for your child, strong for your family and try your hardest to be strong for yourself. You have a million things running through your mind, but at the same time you just cannot think, everything at that moment is surreal, a blur, trying to absorb all this new information about cancer, the treatments, and medications.

Having to be away from our home in Townsville so Hayley can receive this treatment in Brisbane at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, for these last twelve months, has been hard. It is hard to be away from family and our old normal life. This new normal life we have while going through hospital stays, chemotherapy, radiation and surgeries has been made so much easier with the help from Childhood Cancer Support. It is not only the home that they provided us but the support they have also provided every step of the way which has been invaluable.

With so much going on with appointments and treatment, just knowing that Childhood Cancer Support is there for you and your family through the ups and downs of coping with a child with cancer, takes a huge burden from us not having to worry about where we could stay. We greatly appreciate that we can come ‘home’ everyday from the hospital and just be comfortable and try to live as much a normal life as we can.

Now that Hayley is nearing the end of her treatment here in Brisbane a million thank yous will never be enough to express my gratitude to not only this wonderful organisation but to most importantly the gorgeous people that dedicate their time to helping to support families just like mine. To have people like Tamsyn, Helen, Gina and Matt support you and provide an ear when you need it most is uplifting and comforting, to know they are only a phone call away is always reassuring and it can help in more ways than one.

After twelve months of treatment you believe and hope that there couldn’t be anything worse than to be told that your child has cancer but to now be told that there is nothing more the doctors can do is absolutely soul crushing. I still, like any other mother, have hope that my loud, funny, beautiful, little miss Hayley will somehow get through all of this, I know she will.
– Peta