Ellen's story

Imagine being told your child has cancer; having to travel hundreds of kilometres to the nearest hospital for treatment; and being separated from family members for long periods of time. For the McMaster family, living in Merriwagga, 700km west of Sydney, this became a reality.

Cambell McMaster was just eight-years-old when he was diagnosed with cancer and it is a day his mum Ellen will never forget. The impact of the diagnosis on the whole family was immediate as within 24 hours of diagnosis, Cambell was required to relocate to Sydney to receive long and uncertain cancer treatment.

For rural families all across New South Wales, the impact of childhood cancer can be devastating; many families, like the McMaster’s, have to uproot to be closer to medical treatment and the financial costs such as extra travel and accommodation can become too much to bear.
   
“Treatment was a barrage of tests, steroids and chemotherapy,” said Ellen. “Due to our geographical isolation, we were required to stay near the hospital as children with reduced immune systems can crash very quickly, so the hospital became our home for four months.

“Being separated from my husband and my other sons was not easy,” explained Ellen. “Watching your own very frightened child undergo so many invasive medical procedures was also incredibly difficult.

“My husband Bruce continued to manage our drought-stricken 12,000-acre cropping farm but travelled to the hospital to visit Cambell as often as possible. I also had a physiotherapy practice which ran at a loss while I was away; ¬plus we had two other children to think about as well as our pets.

“It was a very difficult time but thankfully we had an incredible network of family and friends that supported us, plus organisations like Redkite,” said Ellen.

Redkite supports children, young people and their families through cancer by offering practical services such as financial assistance to help pay for household bills, funding social workers in hospitals, providing education grants and offering telephone and email counselling. Around 60% of Redkite services are provided to rural families, wherever they live in New South Wales, and across Australia.

For Ellen and her family, along with receiving an information and support kit from Redkite at the time of diagnosis, Ellen has taken part in a Redkite telegroup which offers essential support and gives families the help that they need when returning to the community after intense and long periods away from ‘normal’ life. Telegroups are facilitated by professionally trained staff where groups of six people talk together on the telephone for one hour a week over an eight-week period to support each other and discuss key themes. Redkite has assisted over 120 families this year with telephone and email counselling.

“I found the telegroup very useful during the transition back to home life,” said Ellen. “It helped me to voice my thoughts and talk through the issues that I had and it was nice to be part of a group that supported each other through our journey.”

Leigh Kurth from Redkite’s Services team is a facilitator of the Telegroup Program and is pleased by the positive and beneficial response from parents who have taken part.

“Our community-based support services such as telephone and email support can be vital for families, especially in regional areas, as they have less contact with the hospital when their child completes treatment.

“These services, as well as the Telegroup Program, provide that important link for families who are off treatment but who are struggling to cope with readjusting to life outside of the hospital. It is a mechanism for parents to share and normalise the many challenges of their experience, whatever stage they are at during the difficult cancer journey.”

Eighteen months after returning home to their property, Ellen and her family are still feeling the emotional and financial effects of Cambell’s cancer diagnosis but things are slowly getting easier.

“Going home is good but scary,” said Ellen. "It is quite an adjustment to be away from the secure medical environment and of course there is the concern about decreased immunity but fortunately, so far, so good."

“We still have the underlying fears of the possible side-effects of the treatment such as fertility issues, the increased chance of leukaemia, and the fear of relapse. We all know it can happen; we just don’t want to talk about it.”

The family are keen to give something back to the community for the incredible support they have received during Cambell’s treatment. Cambell, along with the rest of the family, recently completed a Sydney Harbour Bridge Bridgeclimb to raise money to help other children with cancer.

“Thankfully, Cambell is doing well,” says Ellen. “Finances are still very tight but our priorities in life have changed a lot. Family is important and I am coping. I think everyone else is too.”