Bonnie has leukaemia

Bonnie's Story - Having had flu like symptoms and being lethargic at home and school, Hugh (Bonnie's Dad) took her back to the doctor for some answers. Within hours Bonnie and her Mum were being flown to Christchurch hospital by Central South Island Helicopters with a diagnosis of leukaemia and there starts the turmoil for this family.

Bonnie and Lil have been in Christchurch away from home (Oamaru) since the her diagnosis on 22nd of June 2015. During this time, Bonnie has undergone numerous invasive surgeries to take biopsies, insert permanent infusion lines and lumbar punctures into the spinal fluid for chemo treatment. Most of these have been required on a weekly basis. On top of this, Bonnie is on a course of steroids that give her an insatiable appetite which has her and Lil - Anna Maxwell Bonnies Mum) up every couple of hours during the night to fulfil. While the steroids are doing a valuable job, they have numerous side effects that include mood swings and weight gain. Of course it goes without saying that daily chemotherapy in the form of tablets are administered and daily trips to CHOC (Child Haematology Oncology Centre) are required. As a keepsake of her journey so far Bonnie has accumulated 59 beads of courage to date. Each bead represents a procedure or treatment that Bonnie has undergone on her road to recovery.

Bonnie and Lil are able to reside in the fantastic facility of Ronald McDonald House which while not on the hospital grounds allows there time away from home to be made as comfortable as possible.

The Davidson family have a long road ahead of them in blocks of treatment for Bonnie that will include weekly trips to Dunedin hospital (a 3.5 hour return trip). Once they finally do get home these block treatments will continue over a 2 year period and will still involve spinal chemo, IV and oral chemo and a revisit of a month of those dreaded steroids! At the conclusion of this will be the final prognoses.

While all this is going on in Christchurch, life still has to carry on at home so Hugh (Bonnies Dad), together with their other daughter, Larnie (aged 8) are keeping the home fires burning with the obvious pressures that a divided family brings. Christchurch is a 3.5 hour drive one way for this family. Lil is no longer able to work as her number one priority is supporting Bonnie through his horrendous illness. Hugh has had to put his Stock Agent job (the families main income) on the 'back burner' as he is now solely in charge of running the house, running the farm and caring for Larnie outside of school hours. This is challenging enough being in the middle of winter.

Donations kindly received will be put towards paying for the helicopter ride that Bonnie and Lil received from Oamaru to Christchurch on the day of diagnosis. This was a decision that was made due to limited local resources, the time pressure of farm stock needing to be feed and Bonnie going in and out of consciousness tailored with the aspect of lil driving Bonnie on her own (still in shock from the news) while Hugh stayed back to see to the farm jobs (along with the worry of Lil traveling with their sick daughter on her own). Coupled with this was the aspect of the duration of travelling by vehicle and arriving at CHOC to a skeletal night team.

Other expenses include travel, even though The National Travel Assistance funds 28c/km for hospital visits (Minimum 100km one way), it does not cover travel to Oamaru every week for blood tests, to and from school when Bonnie does become well enough to start attending half days (both these are a 50km round trip), or any other travel ie; trips to A & E in Oamaru Hospital when Bonnie becomes sick due to her compromised immune system.

Also, Hugh and Lil had started plans to install a Mitre10 kitchen kitset into their wee home,and create an improved bathroom space, but these plans had been put on hold when Bonnie was rushed to Christchurch hospital. It would be a fantastic advancement to have the financial resources to allow these meagre renovations to continue as planned, given the multitude of pressures now placed on Lil and Hugh as a family with a sick child. (Their kitchen bench is just that! - a bench with a sink and no cupboards!)

Hugh and Lil would like to express their gratitude in receiving so much support in so many different ways and take this opportunity to suggest any support towards Ronald McDonald House CHCH would be appreciated. Without Ron House their stressful situation would have been a lot worse.

With Bonnie receiving blood and platelet transfusions and realising that whole bloods only have a shelf life of 35 days and platelets only 5 days, it is a great opportunity to make us all aware of how a simple act of giving WILL save lives, and like bonnie, a life is precious, without donors ... we dread to think.

Please look at 'Updates' and 'Gallery' for progress of Bonnies story.