Fundraising past the $20,000 mark!

On my last post I talked about Anita raising over $1,000 for our chosen charity but after I published that post I realised how slack I've been about updating you on the amazing efforts of other friends and colleagues.
Our friend Alistair back in Scotland for example ran the Glasgow half marathon last month with his 3 year old son (I'm sure the toddler dash wasn't 13 miles long but still a good effort on Euan's part!) and together they raised over  $1,300, so check out our fundraising page for more info as we have now past the $20,000 mark which is unbelievable.(The page says $16,000 raised but we also had nearly $5,000 donated in cheques which went direct to the charity).   Which reminds me - I need to send a thank you note to the CEO of the Children's Cancer Centre Foundation because she posted me a voucher for $300 worth of group training sessions. She won it in the raffle at the charity luncheon I was at 2 weeks ago and as she doesn't live locally and knows that I do, she sent it to me which was so thoughtful of her. Now all I need to do is mentally prepare myself for a few 6 a.m. boot camps on the beach!

We've had a house guest over the past week in the form of Ed the kindergarten elephant. We have to make a photo diary of everything we do with Ed during the week so Ed got to have a finger prick at hospital, a trip to the toy library and an outing to the Melbourne museum.


The most important event however, was on Thursday when Celia had her first school orientation day. I was a bit apprehensive as this was the first time I'd dropped her off  but as you can see she was fine and I didn't get a second glance leaving the classroom. She talked nonstop on the way home about the new friends that she'd met so no worries about her starting next year.

I also used the time that Celia was at school to do something nice with Max for a change so we went to this new café that is also a dog grooming parlour - sounds weird but it was great as the back wall is glass so the kids can watch the dogs being clipped and groomed as they drink their baby chino!

   

Maintenance (Remission) within touching distance

Celia has had her last intensive chemo session before we enter the final phase which is called maintenance (remission). We are not out of the woods however as this phase lasts 2 years and involves monthly chemo and lumbar punctures every 3rd month but it will be so much more manageable. Her hair is really noticeable now and she hardly ever wears headscarves any more so her confidence is growing daily. Unfortunately so is her stroppiness and now she is overtaking Max in the tantrum stakes.

I picked up the dreaded Gastro bug last week and then I passed it to Max so he has been sick for the past 3 days and Celia is not happy about someone else getting attention and sympathy!

We did manage to have a family outing to Santa's Magic Kingdom however as Challenge Cancer Charity gave us free tickets and the kids loved it as it was their first time at the circus. The giant penguin seemed to be their favourite bit though!





  I was on the receiving end of Challenge's generosity on Saturday as well as they held a cancer mums Christmas lunch at one of most beautiful vineyards I have been to here (Yering Station in the Yarra Valley).

Amy and I at Beautiful Yering Station

I got to talk to a lot of mums that I hadn't meet before as there were only 3 of us from Monash cancer centre, all the rest were from the Royal children's hospital, and once again I realised just how lucky we were and how unbelievably well Celia is progressing with her treatment. Some day I will tell some of the other children's stories but right now it would feel like tempting fate so I will hold off.



The Monash Mums - Amy, Me and Niki

The weather, food, wine and company were all wonderful so a heartfelt thank you to Challenge and to Ann who owns Yering Station as she makes this lunch possible every year as she was a cancer mum herself (and thanks for the beautiful table flower arrangement which I also won!)

Finally I wanted to tell you about a lovely lady that we bumped into for the first time a few weeks back at the local farmers market. Anita is pregnant with her third and we got chatting as she will soon have 3 kids with a similar age gap to mine. When she found out that Celia had leukaemia she insisted that she wanted to fundraise for our chosen charity and true to her word that is exactly what she has done - she ran 14kms in the City to Sea run on Sunday and raised $1000 for the Childrens Cancer Centre Foundation. I have yet to meet with Anita and say thank you in person even though she lives just a few streets away but Anita, if you are reading this I promise I will arrange something soon!


Anita at the finishline - well done you and bump!



A busy few weeks

The fact that the blog has not been updated in over 2 weeks indicates that we have had a busy couple of weeks. I am glad to say that most of this was 'good busyness' i.e. social events and not just hospital and doctor visits although there were a few of those too.

Two weekends ago our friend Roger came down from Sydney to see us and as you can see uncle Roger is always a big hit with the kids....

 

Then we had Halloween which I was dreading due to Celia's Vampire phobia. We didn't venture out of the house but of course the first trick or treater that came to the door was a little boy in a vampire mask so she ran off screaming leaving the poor boy very miffed!

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending our friend Tommy's wedding down in picturesque Sorrento. Tommy is an old work colleague of mine from our London days although as you can tell from the photos he is a true Scot and Rangers supporter therefore he and Andy hit it off when he moved over here to be with his lovely fiancé Brooke. It was our first Aussie wedding and we had a wonderful day (enhanced by the fact that Reese babysat the children all day and most of the night!).

It is what they call Spring carnival in Melbourne this week and for those that aren't familiar with this occasion it basically means the place goes nuts over horseracing, so much so that Tuesday was a public holiday for what is affectionately know as the race that stops a nation. Thursday was Ladies Oaks day and although I didn't actually make it to the races I did attend a Ladies Oaks day luncheon. It was in aid of The Childrens Cancer Centre so a few of my mother's group friends and I went along to Sandringham yacht club in our obligatory fascinators/hats and a select few managed to stretch the luncheon out until 10.30pm! (two of which were of course myself and my friend Michelle) The day raised over $32,000 and there were a few emotional speeches from fellow cancer mums which resulted in some mascara reapplication afterwards!

 

In between all this social activity we've had a few hospital visits (scheduled lumbar puncture and chemo 2 weeks ago, chemo on Friday and an unscheduled visit on Wednesday due to Celia developing a rash around her port which the doctors couldn't identify but which seems to be fading). We also had a few doctors/nurses appointments (Max had a chest infection, Mabel had her 12 month check up and Andy and Mabel had the flu jab which is a requirement for all Celia's family members) and Celia also had 2 psychologist appointments so as I said it has been a busy few weeks which must be a justifiable excuse for not attending to the blog??!......