The doctor is in

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By KATHERINE NEWTON - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 27/10/2009

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

MAKING LIFE EASIER: Joshua Wood, 13, with his dog Biggles, is one of the children who will continue to benefit from having a paediatric oncologist at Wellington Hospital.

Families and staff at Wellington Hospital's embattled child cancer service have been given hope after the unit's remaining specialist extended her contract.

American locum Sarah Strandjord has been the sole paediatric oncologist at Wellington Hospital since husband and wife team Christian Kratz and Mwe Mwe Chao left in August.

The pair's resignations in April sparked a downgrade of the unit to a secondary service until at least the end of 2010 – meaning children needing acute care had to travel to Auckland or Christchurch for treatment.

Dr Strandjord was due to leave the unit this month, but will now stay until at least April next year.

Children and their families will still have to travel for diagnosis and acute treatment, but in most cases will receive follow-up care in Wellington.

Through a Capital and Coast District Health Board spokesman, Dr Strandjord said she had "discovered many excellent services and people" at the hospital and was pleased to be staying longer.

Tony Wood, whose son Joshua, 13, has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, said the news was "just fantastic".

"Everybody from early on realised how important and pivotal she was to maintaining some form of care there – and how good she was.

"She gives us enormous confidence."

Mr Wood was also impressed with the support the family received when they travelled to Starship children's hospital for week-long acute treatment twice this year.

Joshua "hated the entire week", but free flights to Auckland, taxi chits, grocery vouchers and being able to contact a Capital and Coast staff member at all times helped make the time away from home easier, Mr Wood said.

John Robson, chairman of the Child Cancer Foundation's central division, was delighted by Dr Strandjord's contract extension.

The region's child cancer service had been a "jumbled-up jigsaw" for years, he said. "Sarah's always been that piece we couldn't find. If she wasn't going to stay we were in a really difficult position."

Mr Robson was keen to "keep the pressure on" the district health board to ensure the unit's long-term future.

Health Minister Tony Ryall announced last week that a new National Health Board to be set up by Christmas would take over national funding and planning of specialist services, including paediatric oncology.

Mr Robson said it was not clear yet what effect that would have on Wellington Hospital's child cancer service. "The fact that the ministry is naming it as a service that's important is hugely positive."

Tree plant marks last treatment for cancer

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By SARAH CODDINGTON - North Shore Times

Last updated 05:00 24/09/2009

Photo: BEN WATSON

NEW BEGINNINGS: Bianca White plants a tree at Oteha Valley School in celebration of her last chemotherapy treatment.

Bianca White celebrated an end to more than two years of chemotherapy treatment by planting a tree.

The six-year-old who featured on the Dominion Post website with the blog – Growing up with Cancer – held a special planting ceremony at Oteha Valley School to celebrate a new start with her classmates.

The year 1 student was diagnosed with acute lympho blastic leukaemia, a common child cancer in 2007.

Just before her fourth birthday party Bianca was diagnosed with the disease in Wellington.

After problems at the hospital the family made the move to Auckland’s Starship.

Her father Terence White says their daughter does not realise the significance of this day but she is now looking forward and happy.

"I want her to grow up like other kids, ride bikes, fall off and scrape her knees," says Mr White.

He says until now she has grown up with doctors and nurses and now it is time for her to be a child.

Bianca chose all the special people she wanted to be part of her tree planting ceremony, including friends, teachers and the junior school.

She then put a capsule underneath her six-year-old magnolia
tree.

When she turns 21 she will come back to dig up a jar that holds memories of the
day.

Her family also celebrated the end of treatment by buying her and her sister Caitlyn a new bike.

During the past two years Bianca has collect more than 1000 beads from the Child Cancer Foundation, each represents a part of her cancer treatment.

Although Bianca is not in the clear she has finished treatment and is only taking preventive medication.

She will continue hospital check ups for the rest of her life.

Bianca puts all that treatment behind her

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By RUTH HILL - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 21/09/2009

JOHN SELKIRK

THE BIANCA TREE: Oteha Valley School planted an evergreen magnolia to mark the end of Bianca White's treatment. She calls it the Bianca tree.

In the past two-and-a-half years, Bianca White has spent 117 days in hospital, battled many infections, submitted to countless tests and suffered through chemotherapy.

'When will I be done with cancer?" Bianca White asked her mother as they counted out the last few chemotherapy doses.

She has now finished treatment and doctors have given her the all-clear but in some ways, cancer will always be part of their lives, says her mother, Lea.

"I look back to that terrible day when she was diagnosed, and at the time it felt like we'd been given a prison sentence ... But now it seems like it's gone so fast."

Bianca was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in June 2007, two weeks before her fourth birthday.

"She doesn't remember a time before she had cancer and, in some ways, that was easier, because she didn't mourn for the life she had lost. She just accepted it. But it feels weird for us now."

Bianca is enjoying not having every meal timed to fit her chemotherapy schedule. And she was surprised recently to learn the port in her chest (for intravenous medication) will soon be removed. She thought it was part of her body.

Mrs White has chronicled Bianca's ups and downs on her blog Growing Up With Cancer on Dompost.co.nz and attracted more than 8200 hits in the past two months.

Watching your child suffer is the worst experience a parent could have but the experience has made the family stronger, Mrs White says.

Another blessing has been the close bonds they have formed with other families in similar predicaments.

"Those kids become friends because, a lot of the time, they can't mix with other children because of the risk of infection. And only other parents really know what you're going through because they're living it too." There was heartbreak along the way sharing with other families as they dealt with relapses, setbacks and sometimes the deaths of their children.

Right from the start, Lea and husband Terence were determined they would keep life as "normal" as possible.

Baby sister Caitlyn, now 2 1/2, helped with this. "She took a lot of the focus off the medical stuff cancer wasn't the only thing in our lives."

Last May, the family decided to move to Auckland because of uncertainty over the future of specialist child cancer services in Wellington. "We wanted to make sure that, whatever happened, we could face it together."

The Wellington unit has since been permanently downgraded to a secondary service, with support from Christchurch.

Starting at Oteha Valley School on Auckland's North Shore has been another milestone for Bianca.

The school held a ceremony and planted an evergreen magnolia last week to mark the end of Bianca's treatment.

Bianca has named it "the Bianca tree" and it is the same age as her.

"I want her to take life lessons from all this," her mother says. "One day, when she looks back and sees what she achieved, she will know nothing is impossible for her.

"We will never deny this has happened."

Read the final Growing Up With Cancer blog post at dompost.co.nz/bianca

Young cancer sufferer chases his dream of playing in black

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By TANYA KATTERNS - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 19/09/2009

BIGGEST FAN: Brad Burt says he had been ticking off the days till he got to meet his hero Richie McCaw.

Pure determination has helped Brad Burt battle through two major operations to remove a massive tumour from his brain stem.

And the young rugby fanatic was able to inspire All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw, as he mixed with the players during the captain's run in Wellington yesterday.

The 10-year-old, from Greytown, who refuses to let the cancer ruin his own dream of one day wearing the black jersey, shook off memories of months of treatment to tell McCaw: "Go hard, Richie, you guys can pull this off."

Over the past 10 months, Brad has endured surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to rid him of the tumour. It will be December before his treatment is over and at least three years before his family know whether he has been cured.

Yesterday's meeting with "the greatest rugby team on Earth" had been a dream for some time, he said. "I've been ticking off every day in a special calendar. It has meant so much to me and it has helped me stop thinking about operations and blood transfusions and the hospital."

With the support of the Make a Wish Foundation, Brad, his older brother Josh and parents Illana and Glenn, have been given three days in Wellington, taking in the test match tonight and Brad's wish of meeting the All Blacks.

McCaw, who signed Brad's bald head, said it was a privilege to be able to put a smile on the youngster's face. "He's pretty inspirational ... a guy like that has obviously had a tough time and I guess the chance to put a smile on his face with something like this is a pretty easy thing from our point of view."

Brad, who was a standout prop in his under-11 team before he got sick, continues to have a never-say-never attitude seeking advice from McCaw as he chases his All Black dream.

"[I told him] just enjoy it, that's what sport is all about," McCaw said. "That's why I still play. I'm sure that's why he comes along and as long as he keeps smiling, that's the key."

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By KATHERINE NEWTON - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 03/08/2009

CRAIG SIMCOX/The Dominion Post

TIGHT-HEAD TERRIER: Liam Todd, 8, is back in the game he loves, playing tight-head prop for his Waikanae rugby team after surgery for a facial tumour.

A year after a rare facial tumour sidelined Liam Todd, the eight-year-old is back on the rugby field with a new jaw and a new lease of life.

Last April, Liam was found to have an aggressive myoepithelioma tumour. He was the youngest of just a handful of people in the world to have the rare form of cancer.

Doctors discovered the tumour growing beneath Liam's left eye just two years after his father, Matt Todd, died of brain cancer.

Liam's mum, Rebecca, said the family braced itself for another fight, but specialists at Hutt Hospital's plastic surgery unit were able to remove the tumour and reconstruct the left side of Liam's face using bone from his leg to make a new jaw.

Now Liam has been given the all-clear, after a CT scan six weeks ago showed no sign that the cancer had returned.

With the go-ahead from his plastic surgeon, he has thrown himself back into his favourite sport, playing tight-head prop for his Waikanae under-9 team.

He said his favourite part of the game was "running with the ball" and he had even scored a try. Mrs Todd said Liam was doing really well. "He's got player of the day three times."

She had got over her initial apprehension about letting him back into the fray, she said. "I can't wrap him in cotton wool I've got to let him go."

The family could finally move on now, she said. "Hopefully this is just a little bump on the road and it's all plain sailing from here."

An autograph to crown 'em all

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By STACEY WOOD - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 20/06/2009

ROSS GIBLIN/ The Dominion Post

PEN TO PATE: Sir Colin Meads signs his name on the head of cancer patient Josh Wood, 13, right, and did the same for Josh's brother Jonathan, 10, who has alopecia.

Josh Wood lost his hair to cancer, but his smooth head made the perfect canvas for Sir Colin Meads' autograph.

Meads spent the morning before a charity auction yesterday visiting sick children at Wellington Hospital. At the youngsters' request, he scrawled his signature on the smooth heads of Josh, 13, who has leukaemia, and his brother Jonathan, 10, who is not ill but has alopecia, a condition which causes people to lose their hair.

Meads said it was the first time he had signed a scalp, but for Josh it was not a new experience.

"I went to a camp and everybody signed my head."

Josh has 18 months of treatment to go and will have to travel to Auckland for part of it.

Meads flew by helicopter to the hospital with Liam Todd, 8, who is recovering from a rare, aggressive tumour in his sinus cavity. Liam was a bundle of nerves before the flight but by the end he was grinning from ear to ear.

"He thought it was absolutely marvellous, he wanted to go again," mother Rebecca said.

Liam has a special connection to the rugby legend. "Liam's great-grandfather is Ernie Todd, who was one of my managers many years ago," Meads said.

Before going to the 12th Champions Charity luncheon, he visited a few more young patients and gave tackling tips to a pair playing an All Blacks video game.

Fellow rugby greats Andy Haden, Jamie Joseph, Ian Kirkpatrick, Grant Fox, Walter Little and Michael Jones joined him in raising money for the Child Cancer Foundation.

Among the memorabilia up for auction was a jersey signed by the three "rugby knights" Meads, Sir Wilson Whineray and Sir Brian Lochore.

Foundation fundraising manager Amanda Nicolle said the auction had raised about $60,000 by yesterday afternoon.

Child cancer unit loses downgrade fight

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By KATHERINE NEWTON - Wellington

Last updated 05:00 12/06/2009

ROSS GIBLIN/ The Dominion Post

EXTRA PRESSURE: Five-year-old cancer patient Riley Thompson finds support from mum Alison at Wellington Hospital's child cancer unit, which has been downgraded.

KENT BLECHYNDEN/ The Dominion Post

BRAVE FACE: Stephen Uelese - with his treatment beads - and mum Marika Broad.

Wellington's embattled child cancer unit has been downgraded until at least the end of 2010.

After more than a decade of uncertainty caused by the successive resignations of health professionals, Capital and Coast District Health Board announced yesterday that the unit would only provide a "high-level secondary service" for at least 18 months.

This means families of complex or new patients from the lower North Island face the additional stress of travelling to Christchurch or Auckland for treatment.

Capital and Coast chief executive Ken Whelan said it was "pretty clear" that the hospital could no longer offer a tertiary service. "[Downgrading] is our safest and only immediate course of action."

The downgrade was sparked by the resignations of Wellington's two paediatric oncologists husband and wife team Christian Kratz and Mwe Mwe Chao who will leave the unit in August after less than a year in the job.

The pair could not be contacted for comment, but correspondence given to The Dominion Post last month blamed hospital management's "hampering" attitude and lack of support for their resignations.

A locum doctor from the United States will remain at the unit until October.

Mr Whelan said the board would work with a group of families, clinicians and administrators to determine what changes were needed to build a sustainable unit and make tertiary services viable again for sick Wellington children.

In the meantime, the board would provide extra funding and support to families who had to travel to get treatment.

Criticisms that the board should have made changes sooner were unjustified, Mr Whelan said.

"It's pretty easy to look back through the retroscope and say that but, when you're in it at the time, it's more difficult to see that solution."

Marika Broad, whose son Stephen Uelese, 9, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in October 2007, said the news was like being "smacked in the face".

"I think it's absolutely appalling of the DHB."

Stephen will receive maintenance treatment in Wellington, but Ms Broad feared that the family would be uprooted if he needed surgery.

"It still might affect us when we need theatre procedures."

She was sceptical about the board's promise of extra funding and support for travelling families. "They've spoken about funding before and where's that?"

John Thompson, whose son Riley, 5, was diagnosed with leukaemia 18 months ago, said the downgrade meant "additional agony" for those families forced to travel.

Other parents at the unit were more optimistic.

Catherine Ternent, whose son Sean, 8, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma aged 5, said although the situation was "not ideal", at least the board had a plan.

"While it's not helpful, at least there's hope this time. We'll be keeping them honest."

John Robson, chair of the Child Cancer Foundation's central division, said there had been "many let-downs and a lot of disappointment over the years", but he was hopeful the board would keep its promises this time. "We've never previously sat down with the CEO. This is an opportunity for us to actually make a better service."