Please help us find a cure for kids like Lucy!
2 years ago, in March 2022, Lucy, was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive type of childhood bone cancer. At diagnosis, she was given a 30% chance of surviving the next 5 years. Thankfully, Lucy’s survival rate has improved slightly since diagnosis and she responded well to treatment, achieving remission in October 2023.
This is a fundraiser that actually saves individual lives. Lucy is one of the participants in the ZERO cancer program. During the program, Lucy’s tumour was put through its paces in the lab, right here in Sydney, just metres from her hospital room - where her tumour was grown, tested and treated with different drugs.
During this process, the scientists identified one particular drug which has the potential to prevent Lucy from relapsing and she was given this treatment during 2023.
This type of individual tumour analysis and testing is not widely available in other countries yet. Lucy is incredibly lucky to be in Australia!
Lucy is 1 of 86 children who are diagnosed with cancer, in Australia, each month. That’s:
• 86 families who are thrown into the chaos and anxiety of oncology.
• 86 families torn apart during lengthy hospital stays.
• 86 families who suddenly lose one or both of their incomes.
• 86 families living with the daily load of uncertainty.
• 86 sets of siblings who are suffering too.
And sadly, the worst is yet to come for some of those families:
• 12 of those 86 children will die.
Lucy has experienced more trauma than most adults will ever see.
She spent most of 2022 in hospital, too sick to leave her bed, and 2023 was equally as traumatic.
Her little body has been pushed to the brink of failure, but somehow, she is still here.
Lucy has seen families leave hospital for the last time, going home to spend whatever time they have left together. She has had children pass away in the room next door.
She has heard the Code Blue announcements. She has heard parents sobbing. She has seen doctors sprinting down the hallways. She has seen nurses with trembling hands, as they continue their shift.
She has heard the frightened whispers of a new diagnosis. She has heard parents crying quietly in the night. She has seen children vomiting until they fall asleep from exhaustion. She has heard children begging to go home.
She has had chemo-induced seizures. She has been on life-saving oxygen support. She has had blood infections, COVID and pneumonia. And she has been in ICU.
But there is hope for Lucy and our future warriors. The research is working. The science is working. And the medicine is working.
Thanks to the Children’s Cancer Institute, and the generosity of strangers, Australia is getting very close to curing childhood cancers.
It’s not if… it’s when.
Please help us save more children like Lucy.🎗️
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