On April 25th 2021 our lives were thrown into a different direction when our youngest son Charlie was diagnosed with Mixed Phenotype Acute Leakumeia at the age of 10 months.

This is the day will remember for the rest of my life.

Not because it was a moment that wanted to remember but because this is the day our lives as we knew it was tipped upside down. Our world crumbled as we learnt our youngest son Charlie was in for the fight of his life. We had just come back from a huge camping trip that was meant to be our last hurrah before threw myself back into work as rounded up my Maternity Leave. It was exhausting yet fun but also the last happy memory we were to have for the next few months. In the month prior to diagnosis Charlie just kept getting sick over & over. Sure he'd recover with medication but pretty much as soon as he recovered he would crash as he caught something else. In the space of 2 weeks had taken Charlie to see 4 different doctors who all either prescribed me with Amoxicillin or Prednisolone or gave us an Asthma Action Plan along with Ventolin for a cough that wouldn't budge.

Nothing seemed to be improving and Mama instincts kicked in after took a photo to celebrate Charlie turning 10 months old. His skin was pale, eyes sunken with bags underneath him, he was lethargic and kept laying on the floor in between spurts of crawling. I had also began to feel 3 very raised lymph nodes on the base of Charlie's head. Enough was enough and that Sunday finally got him into my personal doctor.
I sat Charlie down on the examination bed and my doctor's face said it all. Something wasn't right - there was something really wrong with my baby. He examined his belly and Charlie flinched - along with all the visual signs he very quickly typed me a letter and insisted I take him straight to Emergency at Lyell McEwin Hospital in Elizabeth.

I drove straight to Lyell Mac around 12pm that day as was told. Bloods were taken, hushed conservations were heard and 5 hours later I was told that Emergency at Women's & Childrens Hospital was expecting us. I drove home to pack an overnight bag and opened the referral letter. "Failure to Thrive" was the first thing I read as shared the letter with Ashley. We had no idea what was next to come.

Within 10 minutes of arriving at Emergency at WCH we were surrounded by 5 doctors/ nurses who then spent the next hour trying to insert a cannula into the veins of a sick & exhausted 10 month old Charlie. He was screaming and crying the entire time and there was nothing I could do about it. Once they were finally able to get one in they took what seemed like so much blood and started him on a antibiotic called Tazocin and fluids. We were moved to another room so Charlie could sleep about 1 Opm at night.

Shortly after Charlie's antibiotics were finished was approached by a doctor who told me he needed to speak to me after Charlie went for an x-ray. We came back from the x-ray and we were wheeled to the room we would be staying in for the night. I remember reading the sign on the wall "Haematology & Oncology" and asking the nurse what Oncology was. "Just the study of blood" she said. My heart sank...I knew oncology meant Cancer. I settled Charlie into his cot for the night and washed my face before there was a knock on the door.

Dr Michael Osborn entered the room and told me who he was - instantly felt nauseous. In less than 2 minutes then learnt that our son either had a Bone Marrow Disorder or Leukaemia. I asked him to write everything down for me and I rang my husband at 11:20pm at night.

I didn't know what to say and he didn't know what to say but we both knew this was not good news. I remember asking Nurse Josh for Panadol just after midnight as gave myself a crying induced migraine.

I cried myself to sleep that night alone in Room 3 on the Michael Rice Ward.