Lesane's Story.

In November 2013 when Lesane was just 5, he was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma.

He underwent 2 major brain operations in just 2 weeks to resect the tumour. Unfortunately because of the position on his tumour, the surgeons weren’t able to remove it all and a thin layer was left along his brain stem. He recovered well from the first 8 hour surgery and we were anxious to know how he fared.

We were elated to find out that he had made it and devastated only a week later when we were told that the official diagnosis was Medulloblastoma. In addition to this we were told that he needed another operation to remove another part of the tumour that had been missed.

The Neurosurgeons were confident they removed as much as they could but the radiographers disagreed so there was to be another 8 hour operation before we were once again relieved to be told that our son had made it through the operation and that all parties were happy with the result.

Lesane spent Christmas recovering in hospital though we made it as special a day as we could for him and our 4 other kids. He started Chemotherapy and Radiation on January 6th just 4 days shy of his 6th birthday. He is now half way through his first round of treatment which is to last a total of 31 sessions over 6 weeks. He has coped incredibly well despite only having one parent with him at a time and only seeing the rest of the family on weekends.

It was hard to witness our happy, healthy, active son become so unwell. And not knowing what to do or who to turn to made things even worse but slowly by slowly we are learning the ropes and finding people and support groups that are helpful.

t’s also good that the surgeons, nurses and everyone else at PMH, Princess Margaret Hospital and RMH, Ronald McDonald House have been amazing with both Lesane and our family thus far. We know we have a long road ahead of us but it makes life that little bit easier knowing we are starting to get some good help behind us.

Daniel and Jennie

Australind, WA

(02/02/2014)