Jayden R

Jayden was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at the start of 2021 when he was 6 years old. His mum Tegan says the start of treatment was traumatic, as Jadyen faced so many needles where he had to be held down. They even had to put an IV in his foot at one point, as all his other veins kept collapsing. This was just the start of many painful and scary medical procedures. Tegan says, 

“We were hopeless. You’ve got your child there and you read all the side effects of the medicine they have to take, and you realise you have no choice. You have to fight, or give up. There was no choice.” 

Jayden’s older sister Matilda also suffered as her parents’ energy went into getting Jayden through his treatment. 

“Matilda started to feel like she was not as loved as Jayden. But you just haven’t got the time when you are in hospital constantly, trying to fight cancer.” 

The exhausted family finally got a break when they attended a Camp Quality Family Camp. “Unless you have been through cancer, you really can’t understand. But everyone on Family Camp, they just all got it. How hard it was to carry on and do life. And all the volunteers were so welcoming, I felt safe, knowing my children were being looked after. It was a place we could feel comfortable going somewhere that wasn’t the hospital or our house, knowing that help was there if we ever needed it.”