A forever home for the Tedenborg-Bayliss family

Update from Elenor's family.

It is with immense sadness that we share the news that our beloved Elenor lost her long and oh-so-brave battle with HER2-positive breast cancer/leptomeningeal cancer on Sunday, October 2.

She maintained the fight and her good humour until the end.

Elenor’s partner Simon has lost his best friend and sons Eli are Charlie their amazing mum, a fate no child should experience. A network of family and friends will ensure her memory lives on for her boys on the path ahead.

The family still has the dream of a forever home and the kind and generous donations from people across Australia and around the world will go towards achieving that goal.

Elenor inspired many with her courage and openness throughout her journey, encouraging us to live kindly, healthily and mindfully. Not everyone can say they made a difference in the lives of other people but Elenor did. We are all richer for having her in our lives.

Thank you to one and all again for your generosity.

“Seek gratitude, find your smile, search your soul.”

“Soul’d on Life”

- Elenor Tedenborg

Elenor's last photo with her boys

Original text Below

This page has been created in response to the many people who have asked how they can help our wonderful friends Elenor Tedenborg 

and Simon Bayliss and their boys Charlie, 9 and Eli, 5 after a devastating diagnosis in February for Elenor of Leptomeningeal cancer .

The family's unrelenting cancer journey began five and a half years ago when our beautiful Elenor was first diagnosed with aggressive HER2-positive breast cancer, while eight months pregnant with their second bub.

Elenor holds baby Eli after delivering him four weeks early to have a double mastectomy and begin treatment.

As the couple worked together to maintain as normal a life as possible for the boys, while doing what has been needed to keep Elenor alive, the family have, at times, been at financial breaking point and the dream of a house of their own has stayed out of reach.

Like many of us, the couple has worked to save what they can for a deposit for a home , however the practicalities of cancer treatment and the often debilitating side effects, alongside the demands of day-to-day family life, have meant lengthy periods of time where earning a full-time income has been largely impossible for Elenor and Simon. 

We want to help make their goal of owning a home a reality and enable the family to focus on Elenor. As well as her steadfast focus of never giving up , the other desire Elenor holds tightly is for future security for her rock Simon, darling boys Charlie and Eli and Lucky (the pooch).

Lucky joined the Tedenborg/Bayliss family in 2019.

The journey so far

In 2016 cancer turned Elenor and Simon’s dreams for the future on their head. The couple had recently moved to

regional NSW from Sydney seeking a less expensive and more relaxed lifestyle for their family. 

Elenor and "her rock", Simon.

The past five years have been beyond gruelling, testing the family emotionally, physically and spiritually, not to mention financially. Elenor’s diagnosis, and the twists and turns that followed, paused and at times completely halted the couple’s respective career aspirations and the future plans.

Elenor’s treatment has included a double mastectomy, multiple rounds of a number of types of chemo, multiple rounds of radiation and steroids, as well as other life-saving medical intervention to treat the sometimes

extremely serious side effects of treatment on her body.

Elenor undergoing radiation wearing the mask she nicknamed "Wolverine"

For Simon this has meant putting his career on hold to care for Elenor and their young boys, something he does unquestioningly, but which has nevertheless impacted him and the family in many ways, including

financially.

Elenor’s treatment has also meant she has been unable to drive - sometimes for months at a time - and Simon stepping into the full-time ‘designated driver’ role has further impacted his ability to work.

Since being first diagnosed, Elenor has tackled every challenge with grace, grit, positivity and purpose.

Even more than that, increasingly as her journey has continued, Elenor has seen her challenges as a way to encourage people to live better – to be healthier of mind, body and soul. She inspires all of us to think about and reflect on how we want to live and who we want to be.

Elenor has gifted us messages of a non-toxic and healthy lifestyle, to live our lives with positivity and purpose – to live, not just exist.

Elenor has charted her journey with messages of healthy living and holistic healing.

With Simon as unwavering support behind the scenes, Elenor has openly shared her journey with her family and friends as she seeks to share messages of holistic healing, to support those living a similar experience and try to improve the journey for those who may follow.

Since the early days documenting her journey, the Elenor we see via her social media posts and “live” videos is incredibly open , honest, compassionate, humble, and self-effacing - laughing at herself and giving of herself in order to help others.

Thought for others before herself has always been who Elenor is. Having cancer has just honed her focus and intent and made it more evident to more people.

What can you do to help?

Via this GoFundMe, we are providing the opportunity to help that many have asked about. The biggest way we can help is to try and make Elenor’s goal – of knowing that her boys have a secure home – a reality.

In order for Elenor and Simon and the boys to stay focused on Elenor’s goal to celebrate her 90th birthday: “You’ll walk past my verandah and say, that lady’s still ‘ere!” we who love this little family are committed to trying to achieve that desire of security for them.

Elenor has already proven she ain’t going anywhere without a fight, but as she herself puts it “IF things go pear-shaped”, her thoughts are only for her boys’ future and wanting to know they have a permanent roof over their heads.

With options at times limited for the couple to bring money in, in addition to more than two years of the COVID pandemic where income was again impacted, it is not surprising the couple have not been successful in getting a home loan. This disappointment is despite a deposit, boosted by Elenor’s ability to gain early access to superannuation. Not able to secure a loan, the couple find themselves paying double in rent what loan repayments would have been. 

With this fundraiser, we hope to add to Simon and Elenor’s nest egg and the goal of a forever home.

There is now an opportunity to thank Elenor for the inspiring example she sets and to help us see her and Simon’s dream for Charlie and Eli realised. We ask those of you who can, to give what you can and to please share this GoFundMe with those you know who would also like to help.

Ongoing support

We hope that this gift-giving effort reaches its target but also realise that people may want to provide the ongoing help that the family need. We have a few ideas in mind that we will share when they’re needed, so please keep an eye out – and thank you for taking the time to read today.

Elenor’s cancer journey

2016

-     Simon, Elenor and Charlie ditch the (expensive) Big Smoke of Sydney Australia, for Albury - regional NSW to create a new home for their little family.

-     Elenor and Simon find out they are expecting their second bub.

-     21 November – Elenor officially launches Soul’d on Life, the business name she chose prior to her cancer diagnosis which becomes the vehicle by which she promotes health, purposeful living.

-     24 November - four days into her maternity leave, Elenor is diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer at 34 weeks gestation.

-     December 6 - Baby Eli is delivered four weeks early (at 35 weeks), so Elenor can begin life-saving chemotherapy treatment immediately.

Elenor and bubba Eli, now 5.

2017

-     February 22 - Elenor finishes her rounds of chemotherapy.

-     March 13 - Elenor has a double mastectomy.

-     March - Elenor and Simon learn that her cancer has spread to her lymph nodes and will continue aggressively  without further treatment - chemo, radiation and another year of blocker are required to hopefully stop the cancer returning.

-     May - Elenor starts another round of chemo, after learning that the earlier rounds had not been successful.

-     June 21 - Elenor officially resigned from a once beloved job as a photo-journalist after realising the job, its hours and the stresses of media did not serve the future she wanted for her family.

-     July 5 - Elenor finishes her next rounds of chemo treatment.

-     July - Elenor begins 25 days of radiation on breast area and lymph nodes.

2018

-     March 27 - Elenor finishes her Herceptin (blocker) treatment.

2019

-     January - Elenor experiences extreme lethargy low haemoglobin, cancer markers are up but CT scan clear. She is gravely ill with Microamioptahic hemoglytic anemia and has blood and plasma transfusion

-     January 31 - begins treatment - Kadcyla chemo/immunotherapy.

-     June - Lucky joins the Tedenborg/Bayliss family.

-     May - There are concerns cancer has spread to Elenor’s liver but the Kadcyla treatment has severe side effects for Elenor’s liver function and leaves scarring.

2020

-     February/March - another setback with cancer recurring. Elenor has another round of chemo.

-     October – Elenor experiencing pain in liver, lots of nosebleeds and low platelets and requires liver checks.

-     November – cancer markers start to go up quite fast and Elenor starts cortisone treatment.

-     November – Elenor experiences pain in her head and nausea, MRI shows cancer has spread to her brain – seven lesions, four quite large, three small.

-     Elenor begins two weeks'of radiation, targeted radiation and full head radiation– (dons her “Wolverine” mask), is unable to drive for six months and the Kadcyla treatment stops due to the cancer spread.

2021

-     January - Elenor’s PET scans all clear and markers halved.

-     March 30 - Elenor begins new trial ARX – 1711 - treatment every three weeks and begins video diaries of her progress.

-     May - Brain tumours are reducing in size

-     August - Elenor picks up her new hearing aids to overcome hearing damage as a result of the radiation.

-     September – cancer markers are within normal range and scans all clear.

-     October – clinical trial results are so good, they decide to pull treatments back to every six weeks instead of every three weeks.

2022

-     January 20 – scans all clear.

-     Late February - Elenor catches COVID and also starts to experience nausea, vomiting, dizzy spells, severe headaches. The clinical trial is halted.

-     An MRI shows that the cancer has returned – this time to the meninges (thin membrane covering the brain).

-     Elenor undergoes full-head radiation and steroids for 20 days to try and ease symptoms of nausea, vomiting and unsteadiness.