Shane and his wife Cheryl, and their daughter Adele’s life was turned upside down in 2015.
Adele was watching the football at Adelaide Oval with her family but was feeling severely unwell, suffering from symptoms of vomiting, dizziness and lethargy.
A few days later, Adele’s results came through, and every parent’s worst fears were confirmed.
Adele was diagnosed with leukaemia, a type of cancer that approximately 270 children are diagnosed with every year in Australia.
Soon after, Cheryl and Shane were connected to the Childhood Cancer Association during an in-hospital visit by one of our psychologists.
The Hospital Visitation Program is a service where our psychologists conduct daily visits to provide support to children and families in the Women’s & Children’s Hospital.
It can allow the opportunity to organise counselling support, identify needs and organise other critical services that a family can access, for example a wheelchair loan for as long as the child requires.
Please support families just like Adele's
As Shane put it, “It was the small things that made a difference. A wheelchair to enable kids to get out of hospital, something as simple as somebody coming over with a coffee and saying, ‘Hey, are you ok?’ And they’d just sit there and listen.
"It made us feel that somebody cared. We felt we could ask questions and help process and come to terms with the childhood cancer diagnosis.”
Over five years, Adele tragically relapsed twice, travelling to Sydney both times to endure two bone marrow transplants.
She went into remission twice.
And then Cheryl and Shane were told Adele’s cancer had come back for a third time.
Following a five-year battle with cancer, Adele passed away in 2020.
Of the 450 families supported by the Childhood Cancer Association each year, Adele was one of 14 children who passed away from their cancer diagnosis that year.
In the instance of a death of a child, the Childhood Cancer Association provides funeral assistance to cover costs of a service, to alleviate the financial stress on grieving parents, especially in cases where the parents have given up work to care for their child.
"The support they give is amazing, they ring up and touch base and find out how Cheryl is going, and that makes her day.
“They call on Adele’s birthday and on her day of passing just to make sure that we’re ok.
“We’re still debriefing, we’re still processing it to this day. Your world just stops. If these services weren’t around, I can’t imagine how parents and their families process it and cope.
"It means a lot. All these years after, they still call, and they still care.”
The Childhood Cancer Association’s psychologists provide free ongoing bereavement counselling to all family members including parents, siblings, grandparents and extended family.
Shane and his family are one of the 450 families currently receiving support from the Childhood Cancer Association.
But we can only continue to provide this service to families thanks to the support we receive from our community of donors.
Please show your support and donate to provide a lifeline to help families just like Adele’s.