In Memory of Lukas Handwerker

Our dear son Lukas was taken away by leukaemia on the 12 March 2018 after struggling with the disease for nearly a year.

Lukas was 3 and a half years old when diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia whilst travelling with his mother in her native Brazil. We spent the next two months being treated in central Brazil before being airlifted to Australian soil.

Whilst Lukas’ case was never going to be easy due to the aggressiveness of his cancer, initial treatment was somewhat successful.

However in June 2017 the cancer relapsed. From there on there were limited treatment options. As a last resort Laura and I reached out globally to find an experimental trial should we need to go down that path. However, we didn’t need it as a bone marrow transplant proved to be successful. So in December after months in hospital we could finally go home. When Lukas was still cancer free 100 days post transplant we started breathing again.

Since January there were occasional hospital stays but in general, we were asked to start thinking about the future.

At the end of February 2018 Lukas had a swollen lymphatic gland on the right side of his ear. As a precaution the hospital admitted him (the immune system post bone marrow transplant takes one year to fully mature), after one week there was a larger swelling behind his ear and analysis showed the cancer was back.

Options from there on were limited and when Lukas did not respond to initial intervention the oncologists asked us what we wanted to do. Having seen first hand on multiple occasions what chemotherapy does to our son and considering it would not be curative, we decided to move him to palliative care.
It was not a difficult decision to make but a difficult one to live with.

We moved Lukas from the Randwick hospital to a paediatric palliative facility called Bear Cottage in Manly. Here Lukas spent a few wonderful days, going to the beach and zoo, albeit steadily declining. Due to his pain, he was on very high amounts of morphine and other pain relief.

On Monday morning 12th of March 2018 after 6 hours of peaceful “struggle” Lukas passed away in our (his parents) arms.

We are devastated by our loss but grateful to those that helped Lukas and our family on this painful journey. In his memory, we hope to give back to organisations that supported us, as detailed, due to their understanding of children’s cancer.

Thank you for your kindness and support

Anthony and Laura
Lukas’ Parents

We intend to donate the funds raised to

AACC - The Friends of Children with Cancer foundation in Brazil - http://www.aacc-ms.org.br/
This charitable organisation provides essential support for sick children and their families in central Brazil. With the bankrupt state failing to fund cancer treatment or even children's hospitals, AACC steps in paying treatment, staff and infrastructure.
Importantly every child is treated, regardless of wealth, nationality etc.

and
Rare Cancers Australia - www.rarecancers.org.au
A great organisation supporting those who are afflicted by extremely seldom cancers, for which normal treatment hardly ever works.

The Leukaemia Foundation - http://www.leukaemia.org.au/
The central body and port of call for those that have leukaemia in Australia