Love for Luella through Cancer Fight

On 19 May, Lauren and Tom's daughter Luella was diagnosed with Cancer. At just 3-years old, Luella is beginning a lengthy fight.

After weeks of high fevers and regular trips to the GP, Luella was referred for scans and a 13 cm tumour was found on her kidney. In the days after, four tumours were also found in her lungs and she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Wilms Tumour.

Wilms Tumour has a high response rate to chemotherapy but it’s a long road and one that brings immense emotional and financial strain to the family.

Luella will undergo up to 6-12 weeks of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour on her kidney and will then have surgery to remove her kidney. If the chemotherapy does not eliminate the lung tumours, she will also undergo lung surgery. This will be followed by an additional 7 months of chemotherapy and potential radiation therapy. Having started chemotherapy just last week it is still too early to say how Luella will respond to it, but it has not been easy so far.

Lauren and Tom have been alternating overnights at the hospital with Luella with nights at home with their 1-year old, Morgan . This sees them travelling 1.5 hours to and from Blackheath to Westmead Hospital for appointments. This will continue while Luella receives chemotherapy with additional hospital stays whenever Luella is unwell or spikes fever.

Luella is a joyful, playful, adventuresome, curious and strong little girl who is already meeting this challenge with spirit and strength and we want to cheer her on in all the ways we can!

Any amount you can contribute will help their family to stay afloat through an incredibly difficult time, exacerbated by a year’s leave without pay in order to provide the care Luella needs to beat this cancer.

Please be aware Lauren and Tom are currently managing a lot of communications and they may be slow to reply during this time.

Occasional updates on Luella's progress will be provided here.

Let's show them our love and support!