Credit - Casey Weir for Weirthewild
- Just days before giving birth, mum Aimee rushed her four-year-old daughter Ellie to hospital — where doctors found a rare aggressive cancer.
- As newborn Elkie arrived, Ellie began life-saving treatment, enduring months of surgery, chemo and radiation with remarkable courage.
- Ronald McDonald House became their home through the chaos — helping the family stay together as Ellie continues maintenance chemo with strength and sass.
Aimee, Tweed Heads, NSW
‘I can’t wait to meet my sister,’ my daughter Ellie, four, cried pressing a kiss to my swollen belly.
‘Sister!’ my youngest girl, Ayla, two, echoed with a giggle.
It was May 2024 and, at nine months pregnant my husband Brent, 36, and I couldn’t wait to welcome our new baby.
Later that day, around 3pm, Ellie woke up from a nap screaming.
‘My belly hurts,’ she managed between sobs.
I called my parents to look after Ayla, then Brent and I bundled Ellie into the car and rushed to Emergency. There, an ultrasound found a mass in her abdomen.
READ MORE: Mum’s leukaemia journey: ‘My girl saved my son’s life!’
‘We think it could be appendicitis, but she’s too small for us to do any emergency surgery here,’ the doctor said.
We were referred to Gold Coast University Hospital where a CT and an ultrasound revealed Ellie had a tumour.
An ultrasound found a mass in her abdomen
A tumour?! I fretted, trying to stop my brain from imagining the worst-case scenario.
The next day Ellie went to Queensland Children’s Hospital where she was whisked away for an MRI, a PET scan, and had biopsies taken.
That night we were sent home with our girl to wait for results. But three hours later, I was back in hospital as contractions hit. This time at my local maternity ward in Tweed Heads my third girl, Elkie, entered the world.
‘She’s gorgeous, like her mum,’ Brent said.
Ellie and Ayla came to visit their baby sister the next day with Brent.
Seeing the girls cuddled up together my heart swelled with love for my family. But anxiety niggled in the back of my mind over Ellie.
Two days later, Elkie and I came home from hospital. As we settled into life as a family of five, our whole world turned upside down two days later when doctors called with Ellie’s results. She was still having
stomach pains, but they were manageable with paracetamol.
‘Ellie has rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer,’ he said, explaining that the mass they’d found was a nine-centimetre tumour pressing on her bladder.
As the doctor suggested chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, I felt like I was living in a nightmare.
Together Brent and I explained to Ellie that she had ‘Mr Lump’ in her tummy and needed special medicine to get him out.
‘I’ll be brave,’ she promised.
It broke my heart.
Three days later we returned to Queensland Children’s Hospital and Ellie started her first round of chemo.
READ MORE: I had identical triplets: ‘We change 126 nappies a week!’
Thankfully we didn’t have to leave Ellie’s side, when Ronald McDonald House South Brisbane, opposite the hospital, gave us a place to call home.
Over the next seven months, Ellie braved major surgery to remove the tumour and part of her bladder, endured nine tough inpatient rounds of chemotherapy, six weekly chemo infusions, and 23 rounds of radiation.
Ronald McDonald House made her treatment feel magical.
It was awful watching our sassy little Ellie lose her hair. But through it all my beautiful brave girl kept smiling.
‘You’re my little Wonder Woman,’ I’d remind her when her spirits were low.
When Ellie was well enough, she’d stay with us at Ronald McDonald House.
For a child who had begun to dread hospital visits, the house made her treatment feel magical.
One day my mum, Jan, decked out our room with ribbons, balloons, glowsticks and streamers.
My heart burst with joy as Ellie’s eyes lit up with surprise and wonder.
‘I love the party house!’ she beamed.
The staff and volunteers were our light in the darkness, always ready with a cuppa and a chat on a hard day, a home-cooked meal from Meal from The Heart volunteers, and giving us a welcoming place to sleep at night.
‘You are angels on earth, thank you,’ I told them on our last visit in December 2024, when Ellie finished her treatment plan.
Now, Ellie is having maintenance chemotherapy, taking oral chemo tablets at home. And we travel between Tweed Heads and Queensland Children’s Hospital, where we still stay at Ronald McDonald House if she needs a scan.
Our girl’s bright spark is coming back, and slowly so is her hair. She loves reading books to her little sisters Ayla, now three, and Elkie, one.
While the future isn’t certain, one thing is.
Whatever life throws at Ellie, she will tackle it with a smile and sass.
To help support families with ill or injured children like Ellie visit rmhc.org.au
Helen’s helping families in need
I’ll fetch you a toothbrush,’ I told the farmer standing at the door.
Dirt still on his boots, he’d dropped everything and jumped straight into the car following the ambulance his son was in for five hours, until his boy was admitted to Orange Base Hospital following a medical incident.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ he said.
He’d arrived with just the clothes on his back, but at Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Central West NSW in Orange, we had a bed, a warm meal, and a listening ear so he could focus on his son.
As an Overnight Family Ambassador, it was my job to give him a house orientation including their self-contained room, the kitchen and the garden, and make sure he was settled.
‘If there’s anything you need, just ask,’ I said.
I was inspired to lend a hand in 2022 after my family friends welcomed their little boy at just 24 weeks.
They needed a place to stay, and Ronald McDonald House stepped in. Now, after three years, I’ve completed over 1134 volunteer hours.
While I’m rostered for one shift a month, volunteers can offer to help as many hours as they wish.
I stay busy tending to the vegetable garden in summer, making sure the kitchen and common areas are tidy, and reminding guests the fridge and freezer are filled with homemade meals.
I start at 6pm and finish at 8am so that families know there is always someone here for support.
Giving back gives me so much joy.
