Browse > Home / News / Family’s brave cancer battle

Family’s brave cancer battle

Posted on June 17, 2009, 8:08am and updated on June 18, 2009 at 8:19 am

Beatrix and Sarah

Sarah Riddoch reads a story to her two-year-old daughter Beatrix after the family received the book in a hamper of toys delivered by Mount Gambier’s Make A Wish Foundation.

Three Mount Gambier siblings watched with excitement from their lounge-room window on Monday afternoon as Make A Wish Foundation volunteers approached their home with hampers of toys, plates of fairy bread and bundles of balloons.

It was a welcome diversion for their mother, Sarah Riddoch.

Dealing with the knowledge a child is affected by cancer is devastating for any parent, but she has had to cope with understanding all three of her youngsters have a genetic condition and will face surgery at the age of 10.

The prognosis for her youngest child, two-year-old Beatrix, is even more concerning after most of her liver had to be taken away due to the onset of cancer at the age of six months.

“One in hundreds of thousands get this type of genetic bowel cancer — we got it with all three, even though it is very rare — and a small percentage develop tumours in the liver during infancy,” she said.

Beatrix’s liver cancer was identified early, leading to prompt removal, allowing her to continue what appears to be the normal life of a two-year-old, disrupted only by monthly journeys to Adelaide for monitoring.

“Thankfully we got it early and she hasn’t missed a beat — to look at her now you wouldn’t know she had something wrong,” Ms Riddoch said.

“She hasn’t suffered in any other way and just thinks it’s normal to go up every couple of weeks to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to show everyone her belly.”

Although Beatrix appears normal, doctors at the hospital realise her condition is far from that of the average two-year-old.

The uniqueness of her situation has led to there being no understanding of her future, as there are few children in the world with a similar diagnosis.

“There is no-one to compare her with so no-one knows how to treat it and we just have to go month by month,” Ms Riddoch said.

“There are not any answers — there is no prognosis or cure and because it is genetic there is a high chance of it recurring.”

Instead, all the family can do is hold onto hope offered by Beatrix’s oncologist that if she survives to the age of five the chances of cancer recurring will be greatly reduced in what remains of her liver.

They have even sought divine intervention, receiving a blessing from the Pope during a visit to Rome.

Meanwhile, Ms Riddoch has found comfort at the Adelaide hospital alongside families who understand her situation.

While she is glad to find she is not alone, she said it was also upsetting to sit in the ward, seeing beds filled with young bodies undergoing chemotherapy and hearing stories of others’ heartache.

“There was a 16 year old who was in Year 11 and had found she had a tumour and I talked to another mother who was in tears about her six year old with leukaemia who went back to school for the first time after six months,” she said.

“The others in the class said ‘you can’t come to the girls’ toilets any more because you are a boy — you’ve got no hair’.”

Ms Riddoch said she had also had to grapple with considering whether Beatrix would undergo chemotherapy if her cancer returned, due to the potential side-effects.

Mount Gambier Make-A-Wish branch public relations coordinator Dick Hamson said the team of volunteers was glad to be able to provide a “welcome distraction” for the family this week, delivering hampers of toys for the children.

Ms Riddoch said Beatrix’s siblings, Henry, 8, and Prudence, 6, had been affected by the strain placed on the family by the regular journeys to Adelaide.

“The biggest hurdle is to plan your life — every month you have to factor in the medical appointments before anything else and you miss out on the others reading at school assembly, swimming and those things because you have no choice,” she said.

Mr Hamson explained the foundation hoped to be able to grant Beatrix a wish in the coming years after the branch recently helped send a Southend family with a terminally ill child to the Gold Coast for some welcome relief.

“With a child like this, you don’t know how long you will have them for and do anything to fit as much as you can into their life,” Ms Riddoch said.

“You just do whatever you can do.”

An afternoon of food and fashion will be held at Attamurra Golf Club this Sunday from 2pm to support Make A Wish.

Tickets are $10 and bookings can be made by calling Leonie Davis on 8725 6580.

JASON WALLACE

Tags: ,  

Comments

Posting of new comments is currently disabled.