Millie's Magic

Never in a million years would I have thought we'd be reaching out for help. Then again, never in a million years did I think that one of our children would be fighting cancer either.

Millie is an amazing little girl with a magical spirit. All she wants in life is for everyone to be happy, and I have to admit that she does a bloody good job of making sure that happens.

She has been dealt a few challenges in her four years of life. The first three months of her life were spent in NICU and special care after being born prematurely. Three weeks after her birth she was diagnosed with Down syndrome. But then, devastatingly, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 2.5 years old, and has been receiving treatment ever since. She's now four, and has 10 months of treatment to go. Then we deal with the after-affects of chemo that can creep up on her at any time. There's always the fear of relapse, which we are always conscious of but file away in the back of our minds hoping it's something we never have to face.

It's now time to work towards getting back to 'normal'. Millie starts 3yo kindergarten this year, in the year that she turns 5. Getting back on track with therapies (physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy), which was almost non-existant during intensive treatment. Making friends. Making sure that her brothers Harry (15) and Fletcher (11) get a break from just being the sibling of a cancer fighter, and get to finally spend more time being kids and siblings of a healthy little sister.

Paul and I have worked consistently since Millie's diagnosis, both trying to hold down full time jobs so as to not have to reach out for support from financial organisations and charities. While we could, we managed by ourselves. During Millie's long hospital stays, Paul would be at work during the day, with Kate at the hospital most days. Come dinner-time, we'd swap over. Paul would stay overnight at the hospital (heading straight to work the next morning) while Kate would get home at around 9pm to start her work 'day'. It worked. It was hard, but it worked because we made it work, and because it was our only option.

We've now exhausted our savings. We don't have any leave due to our work arrangements, so we don't get paid when we're at appointments or taking days off work during hospital admissions, and our expenses have increased immensely over the last couple of years (needing to live in an expensive area close to school and school friends, hospital parking, take away food, distraction activities and all of the the usual expenses on top of it all), so it was bound to catch up with us eventually. Our credit card is maxed out at a limit that is probably inconceivable to most people.

What compelled me to create this campaign was when Harry, overhearing a discussion about finances, said that he was going to take it upon himself to create a funding page for our family. Kudos to him for coming up with the idea but I don't think that's a responsibility that should be on him, to fundraise for his family. So here we are, doing it for him, doing it for us, doing it for Millie.

We've got a smiling, happy cancer fighter at the end of it who is doing really well, and we're grateful for that and pray that she continues to do well, but life around us moved on while we were stuck in the world of oncology, and we couldn't keep up. We've still got 10 months of Millie's treatment to go.

We fumbled our way through for a long time without asking for help, but after encourangement from friends and others who have found these campaigns a massive help during similar circumstances, we're now swallowing our pride and hoping for a kickstart to get back on track, but most importantly to let our kids have the childhood that they deserve without the financial constraints that cancer has placed upon us.