Help the Britten Family

This is my cousin Tyler Britten. He is a 10-year-old happy active boy who loves his mixed country and coastal lifestyle of pigging, bull riding and fishing.

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Tyler lives on a small farm at Inverell with his father Josh, mother Tiarna, sister Laurie 8, brother Dusty 3 and baby sister Oakley 1. They are a loving family who would go out of their way to help others.

Tyler was born with a rare blood disorder call Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA). DBA occurs when the bone marrow fails to make red blood cells, which are essential for carrying oxygen from the lungs to all the other parts of the body. DBA is a potentially life-threatening condition.

Every 3 -4 weeks Tyler must go to hospital where he spends the day getting 2 – 3 units of blood via a transfusion. His condition has required millions of tests over the years including multiple bone marrow testing where they drill into his hip to take a sample of his bone marrow for testing to monitor this condition. Tyler also requires daily medication.

Tyler is such a loving brave boy who understands his condition and never complains about the transfusions or the tests that his body has to undertake.

Recently Tyler’s condition has become worse, and he has been flown to John Hunter Hospital twice by air ambulance for further testing and treatment. Upon his most recent visit to John Hunter Hospital where Tyler had to have another bone marrow biopsy, the heartbreaking results revealed that Tyler’s bone marrow was failing, and his blood cell count had become dangerous low which means that Tyler will require Chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

The success rate of a transplant depends on many factors, such as how close the match is between Tyler and doner. Matched siblings are the best with a chance of a complete tissue match being 1 in 4. With this knowledge Josh and Tiarna decided to get themselves, Lauire, Dusty and Oakley tested to see if they could be a compatible match for Tyler. After a few long weeks their prayer were answered with both Laurie and Oakley being a match. With Laurie being close to Tyler in age the doctors decided they would use Laurie’s bone marrow as the doner for Tyler.

Doctors have advised that Tyler’s treatment will start in July in Sydney children hospital where he will undergo a long course of Chemotherapy before the transplant. Tyler will be required to be in Sydney for 4 - 8 long months.

Josh is a self-employed fencer who will not be able to work during this time as he will be required to be with his family as they all support Tyler through his treatment and support Laurie through operation for donating her bone marrow. Sydney is just under a 7-hour drive from their home farm in Inverell, as you can imagine this is going to impact the whole family mentally and financially.

As Tyler faces losing his beloved mullet due to the chemotherapy side effects, I will be showing my support by shaving my head, so he doesn’t have to face it alone.

I know both Josh and Tiarna are both to suborn and pride to ask for help, so I am asking that you please show your support by donating what you can afford to help this loving family through a horrible situation, every little bit will help them. It will help with fuel traveling from their home in Inverell to Sydney (probably multiple times while Tyler is in Sydney), expenses while staying in Sydney, treatment expenses that may occur, feeding their stock while both Josh and Tiarna aren’t able to work and hopefully when Tyler is up to it, it will help to give a chance for Tyler to experience some of the wonders that Sydney has to offer (seeing the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, go to the aquarium – I know this will put a smile back on his face ).

Please see the below bank detail where you can donate, we truly appreciate your support.