CCRF Christmas Appeal 2023

November 2023

Dear Foundation Supporter,

Picture yourself as the proud parent of a bouncing, healthy baby boy. Life is filled with laughter, milestones, and boundless possibilities. But then, at just 18 months old, your world takes a devastating turn. The health of your bundle of joy declines rapidly and you find yourself rushing to the hospital for emergency testing.

Two long months later, your son is diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia – a diagnosis that changes your life forever.

Like so many parents, Brooke and Chris Hood were thrown into a world they knew very little about when their son Shane was diagnosed in October 2020. After two years of painful, traumatic, and all-consuming treatment, Shane was given the “all-clear” just days before his fourth birthday. But with this joy came the sobering realisation that their brave little fighter still had a long and difficult road ahead to achieve full recovery.

When we think of children recovering from cancer, we think of them free of the disease. What we often fail to consider is the on-going emotional, social, and physical challenges that these children, along with their families, continue to face after the treatment phase.

These challenges have now been brought home loud and clear to Brooke and Chris, as they watch their son try bravely to re-establish his life as a normal four-year-old boy. The countless hours spent enduring intense chemotherapy treatments, isolation from his family on his second birthday for health reasons, and endless unplanned trips to the Perth Children’s Hospital due to sickness and fever, robbed Shane of the normal social and emotional interactions he should have had at his age.

Shane’s cancer journey has also affected his younger sister Carly in ways their parents never could have imagined. Every time Shane had to be rushed off to hospital, it meant Carly would have to be separated from both him and her mother for days, and sometimes even weeks, at a time. It was a never-ending rollercoaster of emotions that led to her developing severe anxiety.

The Hood family went from a social, active, camping-loving family, to one that rarely ventured out, isolating themselves in a desperate effort to create a germ-free environment to protect Shane’s fragile health.

Having to re-enter Kindergarten just two days after his “all-clear” diagnosis was given, Brooke and Chris are now forced to witness their son struggle in peer group settings. Shane’s school has already flagged developmental issues, whilst Brooke also must deal with the daily anxiety and separation distress experienced by Shane, as he is forced to leave behind the person who has been holding his hand throughout every stage of his battle for the past two years.

The Child Cancer Research Foundation was started 43 years ago by a group of parents who knew the pain associated with having a child with cancer. When the Foundation started, survival rates for children stood at a mere twenty percent. Today, after over four decades and $40 million donated to research, survival rates for some types of childhood cancers have improved to around 80 percent.

But there is still a lot more work to be done. Some types of childhood cancers still carry alarmingly high mortality rates, and we realise that just surviving cancer is not enough. Because when children survive cancer, their hopes and dreams deserve to survive too.

Thanks to the remarkable progress achieved through research, our foundation finds itself in a unique position to fulfill yet another critical need for children with cancer. That’s why we commenced a new program in 2023 called Back on Track. This initiative provides tailored educational and emotional support to children like Shane, ensuring they receive the personalised care necessary to nurture their dreams… to truly survive cancer.

The relationships we have with childhood cancer families have helped us to see the gaps in support for children who go through treatment. We have seen many children slipping further and further with their education, and the anxiety they feel about returning to the classroom is immeasurable.

Back on Track represents our unwavering dedication to providing comprehensive support and care to these brave young fighters. With your support, we can make an even greater impact in the fight against childhood cancer.

This Christmas, we are asking you to consider the profound difference a donation could make in Shane’s life and the lives of many other children like him in Western Australia. Every $80 we raise is the equivalent of one hours’ tutoring for these children.

As our foundation receives very limited government funding, we rely on the kindness and generosity of people like you to help us keep the dreams of our WA children alive in 2024. Together, let’s ensure that every child gets the chance to get back on track towards a healthier, brighter future.

Thank you,

Andrea Alexander

Chief Executive Officer of the Child Cancer Research Foundation

P.S. Your support this holiday season can be the gift that keeps on giving for Shane and many other children like him.