Before falling ill, Audrey was a content infant – full of smiles and already sharing the adventurous spirit of her older brother, two-year-old Elliott. But when her parents, Madeline and Samuel, took her for a routine check-up, their world changed.
Audrey’s diagnosis arrived in shattering waves. First, they were told she had hydrocephalus. Then, she had a brain tumour. Finally, the words no parent should hear – Audrey had brain cancer. “We were heartbroken and terrified, but there’s no space or time to sit with those feelings. You have to find the strength to keep going.”
The family travelled from their home in the Mornington Peninsula to the Monash Children’s Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital, where Audrey underwent six surgeries in six weeks, along with chemotherapy, several lumbar punctures and MRIs. “In her first year of treatment she needed over 70 blood products”, remembers Madeline.
Madeline already knew Ronald McDonald House through her brother, who utilised our services for much of his life, and so the family moved into our Parkville House while Audrey underwent stem cell replacement therapy.
They arrived at school holiday time, which meant Elliott could join our craft activities. He also loved playing in the park and basketball court just across the road, and the family enjoyed an outing to the Melbourne Zoo. Elliott came to call our House his “city home”.
“The House means that families get to stay together. For that, we are forever grateful.”
Equally, the family leaned on our Family Room, located inside the hospital, for six months. It became a place they could find “a little normality in the middle of it all”. They met visitors and enjoyed home-cooked meals, and Elliott took part in the kindergarten playgroup. Madeline thanks our wonderful volunteers, who went above and beyond every day – even helping with washing.
“On the hardest days, it means the world to know we can step into the Family Room, be welcomed with a friendly face, pour a cup of tea, flip a pancake, and just for a moment, exhale.”