It was the week after Izzy’s tenth birthday when her and her family’s lives changed forever.
The gastro symptoms that led them to the hospital were not gastro, but Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Later, they’d also learn a haemorrhage had impaired the vision in both her eyes. They were devastated.
The family spent the following months at the Hobart hospital, far from their home in regional Tasmania, while Izzy received intensive treatment. “The days all rolled into one”, remembers her mum, Kirsty, as Izzy spend months in bed, frail and nauseous.
“It was heartbreaking. We would have done anything to take her place.”
While Kirsty stayed with Izzy in the hospital, her dad Matt and brother Arlo stayed with us, at Ronald McDonald House Hobart. We became their home away from home, as we’ve done for so many families experiencing unimaginable hardship. At first, the family was daunted. But they soon made themselves “very comfortable”, says Kirsty. “Our room and the House had everything we needed.”
“The staff and volunteers were very supportive and understanding, caring to our needs as a family and individually.”
After six months passed, the family was given the green light to go home, and they felt mixed emotions. “We had met so many wonderful people, in the staff at hospital and Ronald McDonald House.” Izzy is now concluding her treatment at home, where she can walk around the farm, pat the horses, make fairy gardens, and return to school.