Our little Hero Lincoln is needing your help pls

Hi our names are Tony & Jake Watters and our grandson warrior Lincoln is taking Leukaemia head on and we are asking all our family & friends for assistance through this very long journey.

August 23rd, 2022 is a day we’ll never forget. It’s the day we were on the receiving end of a conversation that said “Lincoln has Leukaemia".

There are many hours in that first 24 hours that we just simply don’t remember, many hours feeling numb and helpless, many hours questioning why us, why our little ray of sunshine? Lincoln is our cheeky little 5 year old warrior taking Leukemia head on.

The fevers started 2 weeks after his 5th birthday, shortly followed by a myriad of other symptoms that just became relentless in such a short space of time. From his first fever to his diagnosis was just 8 short days.

After what seemed like endless amounts of blood tests hospitals in Kingaroy and Queensland Children’s Hospital, a lumbar puncture and an invasive procedure called a bone marrow aspiration (where they take a sample of the fluid inside his spinal cord from his bone marrow- the spongy tissue and fluid that is inside some of your bones; it makes blood cells), it was confirmed that Lincoln has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).

2 days later, he was back in the operating theatre where surgeons were implanting a device called a Port which is a central line access that sits below his skin around his ribs, that allows our care team to access it (inserting a special needle) to perform a range of tests and provide vital medicines, chemotherapy, blood transfusion and support fluids and products as and when he needs it. This needs to be accessed every single week; which typically means mum needs to hold him in a big bear hug and wrap her legs around his to make the process simple and quick without him moving.

Once they were discharged from the original admission, mum & Lincoln moved into charity accommodation in Brisbane, hundreds of kms away from our home and family.

Lincoln's Dad had to return to work back at home in Kingaroy after 6 weeks of working remotely in Brisbane.

Lincolns baby sister Audrey at 7 months old had to move in with Jake & I to care for her while Lincoln and mum stayed in Brisbane to continue treatment and Dad went back to the office in Kingaroy to work.

Most weeks the family are able to all come together on Friday night before dad and baby sister need to return on Sunday afternoon. But this isn’t always the case and sometimes not possible.

At the end of the first cycle of treatment (30 days) it was confirmed that Lincoln was categorised as “high risk” meaning he has a higher-than-average chance of relapse (the cancer returning) than that of another child with his diagnosis. This now means that all his doses are at increased rates or strength, each round of treatment is longer and there are more drugs needed to help him fight. The second round of treatment (56 days) went relatively smoothly until the very last day of treatment for that round where we were admitted to hospital for a minimum of 3 days because he spiked a fever (this is quite common and we’d had 6 or 7 of these admissions before and once we’d cleared the fever in a few days, you’re able to be discharged), but this time was different. This admission was a long, dark, heavy, emotional and isolating 8-week admission where he almost lost his fight after being deemed in “organ failure”.

This was a result of a severe blood infection, severe stomach and gut infections and inflammations where he was unable to eat or drink at all for 7 of the 8 weeks to give his digestive system time to recover, his lungs had collapsed so he was on extreme oxygen supply, his heart chambers had enlarged to take on the extra workload to pump blood to his organs, he was too weak and in far too much pain to sit up in bed, let alone get himself up and to the toilet without indescribable pain, extreme fluid retention and a list that continues.

We were only just keeping ourselves out of PICU and away from a bunch of bypass machines that do the job of your heart and lungs on the outside while they recover.

Lincoln received the equivalent of 28 adult blood products and transfusions during this admission alone, taking his total to 51 since the end of August. This admission was also over Christmas and New Year, hospital isn’t the most ideal place to spend the festive season for a 5 year old…

Lincoln & mum are now back at our accommodation and after 10 weeks without any cancer treatment, we jump back onto the wagon next week into the most intensive cycle we’ll go through.

This GoFundMe page has been set up to assist our Paul, Morgan, Lincoln & Audrey financially to help with costs of travel, parking, meals, medication, school fees for a school in Brisbane and back at home, other every day living costs that we experience between home and Brisbane and easing some financial burden while we’re living with only 1 income to support them as well as provide the opportunity for dad to be able to take unpaid leave when he can or when needed to be with them in Brisbane over the next 12 months while treatment continues from Brisbane and for the following 18 months after that while we finish treatment from home with regular trips into Brisbane for review and chemotherapy.

All support is greatly appreciated and means the world to them, whether it be financial support or simply spreading the word to reach as many people as possible to share our little hero’s story!