“FOUR health professionals have told you there is nothing wrong with your child, when are you going to believe it?”
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These were the crushing words of a doctor who examined Natalie Ransom’s son, Kane, shortly before he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Kane was three, and had been unwell for weeks.
“When I got to the fifth doctor, I was pretty determined,” Ms Ransom, of Ashtonfield, said. “I knew it wasn’t in my head, that there was something wrong, and I was going to find out what it was. I wasn’t leaving until some blood tests were done, and the doctors believed me.”
After two years of treatment, the family got the “all-clear” that Kane – now seven – was cancer-free. And for 18 months, they enjoyed being a “normal family” again.
But Kane’s cancer returned in November, 2017.
In many ways, the second time around was worse.
“It’s a lot harder, mentally,” Ms Ransom said. “Once is hard enough. We want to find a cure. We don’t want anyone else to go through this.”
Ms Ransom said their family was grateful that Build For A Cure was trying to do just that.
A four-bedroom house at Medowie – built on the generosity of local tradesmen, sub-contractors, businesses, suppliers, and sponsors – will be sold at auction in October to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Institute.
The Ransom family arranged for Newy Burger Co and Damn Hungry Mobile Espresso – who also volunteered their services – to feed, and caffeinate, the tradesman on Tuesday.
Dudley bricklayer, Brett Carr, had a crew working on the house for three days.
“My daughter, Charlie, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was three months old, and she battled it all her life,” Mr Carr said.
“She sadly passed away in April, 2015, and she relapsed three times. I just felt so helpless to watch her go through that, and I couldn’t do anything. But being involved in this, I feel like I can finally do something to help.”
On Tuesday, he laid a special gold brick in the letterbox of the house.
“Gold symbolises children’s cancer, and this month is Children’s Cancer Awareness month,” he said.
“They’ll hopefully get around $650,000 for the house, and all that goes towards research.
“No cancer is good, but childhood cancer – they are so innocent. Charlie went through it, and she thought she was going to beat it again. It is heartbreaking.
“I don’t want any other parent to go through what we’re going through. Hopefully we get a cure one day. The survival rate is a lot better than it used to be, and that all comes down to research.”
This is the fourth Build For A Cure house that has been built. So far, the initiative has raised more than $2 million for the Children’s Cancer Institute.
“If we can get at least $650,000 more for this one, every penny of that will go towards finding a cure for these kids,” Bill McDonald, of McDonald Jones Homes, said.
“We can build a house, but the hardest part is finding a block of land to build it on. I asked Jeff McCloy if he would give us the block of land to do this, and I didn’t have to ask him twice.”
David Fitzharris, of Brickworks, said he was proud to have been involved in Build For A Cure since it began about four years ago.