Olivia’s Story

Hi, my name’s Chloe and I’m helping to raise funds for my friend Rob and his beautiful family following his eldest daughter, Olivia, being recently diagnosed with Leukaemia. This is the family’s story:

"Our world was turned upside down overnight, it's every parent's worst nightmare"

On Friday the 27th September Olivia was taken to ED in Darwin by her dad, Rob, with progressively worsening bruising. On Saturday morning they were given the news to prepare for to be sent interstate as it was clear that she was extremely unwell. On Sunday Olivia and her dad, Rob, were Careflighted to Sydney where she underwent a bone marrow biopsy which confirmed the worse fears, that Olivia has leukemia.

Olivia, who will be 10 in November this year, and her family have been told that Olivia will need to undertake many months of treatments for her type of leukemia, this has been difficult to hear as her treatments could be between 8 months to a year. Treatment for childhood cancers are not available in their hometown Darwin, and the family will need to stay in Sydney for the duration of Olivia's treatments.

Olivia and her younger siblings (Violet and William) live primarily with their Dad Rob and his beautiful partner Nicole. Nicole works as a Cancer Care Coordinator at the Alan Walker Cancer Care Centre in Darwin and tirelessly helps others in need following a cancer diagnosis.

As you can imagine the impact that this has had on the family. The decision was made to have Olivia, Rob and her younger siblings all moved down to Sydney for the foreseeable future. Nicole has gone straight into action, taken leave and packed the family's belongings into Rob's car and has had it shipped down to Sydney to make life easier for them all while down there. She has also flown down to be with Rob and the kids in Sydney to support them and make sure they have everything they need. Their mother has also gone to Sydney.

Rob is in the hospital with Olivia most of the time, and when her mother is with her, he is caring for his other 2 children. He is a previously serving ADF veteran who discharged on disability following injuries sustained during his time in ADF.

Rob and Nicole are just in the process of finalising the building of a new home for themselves and the kids in Darwin. As I am sure you can imagine the stress of having rent and partial mortgage repayments during this time, the extra expenses during this time was certainly not in their usual budget. And predominantly all the costs involved at present are falling onto them as primary caregivers

While they tell me that they are extremely grateful that Darwin Patient travel have provided accommodation for the other 2 children and a parent while not an escort on the ward, they are in a hotel room with limited facilities while they await a room at the Ronald McDonald house westmead, they are unsure how long the wait will be at this time.

Olivia should be able to have the majority of her treatment as an outpatient following these initial couple of months, where Rob would like to take Olivia and her siblings to do some special fun things while in Sydney and for Olivia's upcoming birthday celebrations.

Donations of any size would be greatly appreciate to helps support this Darwin family who are along way from home.

*disclaimer -we’re aware that Olivia's mother Tegan has also started a go fund me page to assist with her expenses in Darwin, please know that Rob and Nicole are in no way beneficiaries of this fund. *