Bring Arky home

Thank you for taking the time to click the link and make it this far. Most of you know the amazing Arky, but for those of you who don’t, this is his story.

It is a difficult one to put such a huge journey in to a brief story but hey we go,

Arky was born on the 7/9/19 he was born two months premature, and since his first breath he has been on one heck of a journey. With the love and support of his family (Erin, Nate and Ruby), Arky has fought some extremely tough battles.

Arky being born premature in 2019 has meant that he has chronic lung disease, he also was diagnosed with CHARGE syndrome: a group of complex health issues that causes him to be deaf, have low vision quality, developmental delay, balance issues to name a few…. He also has an under active parathyroid and thyroid gland which requires care in balancing medications to support him, lastly - the kicker, he was found at approx 3 weeks of age to have congenital athymia, this is a super rare condition in which sees the individual to not be able to develop and mature and immune system, there only way to treat this meant that he needed to visit an international hospital where he would receive a thymus transplant.

June 2020 Arky and his beautiful mother Erin set off on an adventure to give Arky the best treatment the world could offer.

Travelling to the UK was a big decision for Erin and her family and knowing their family would be separated for such a long time made it even harder. But they knew what they needed to do to give Arky the support to keep fighting.

Arky received a life saving thymus transplant. Without this Arkys life would be at risk from something as little as a common cold.

Erin left behind her 4 year old daughter and husband Nate for a trip with no real return date.

Not only did she travel with a very immune compromised baby but she did it right in the middle off a global pandemic. She lived in a hospital with Arky in a foreign country in lockdown with no family.

The transplant was successful and they flew back to NewZealand 6 months later after many hiccups along the way.

Erin has continued to stay away from husband and young daughter Ruby, she has been at the starship hospital living in the Ronald MacDonald house.

After nearly two years in hospital, countless surgeries, tests and challenges they were ready to move back to Waikato hospital and one step closer to home.

It has now been over a year since this family has been living apart. financially has now begun to put strain on bringing Arky home.

Arkys family is trying to prepare their family home for his return. He can only come home once their house is fully equipped with everything needed to support Arky and his low immune system. This all comes at a substantial cost that no parent should have to stress about whilst having all this on their plate.

I need your help to support a family that would do anything for anyone and never expect anything in return.

Please help me support the family be together after over a year of living separately.