Entering the Footy Colours Day spotlight is Leni!
A bright and bubbly little girl, Leni was diagnosed with cancer when she was eight years old during a family trip to Bali.
Leni who wears her heart on her sleeve, and is creative, bright and friendly, first started showing signs that something wasn’t right in August 2018 during a family holiday to Bali.
Seven days into the trip Leni began violently vomiting. Her parents rushed her to hospital, where blood tests were ordered straight away. Doctors suspected Leni had a type of blood cancer but her parents were hopeful it was just anemia.
After spending three days hospitalized in Bali and given the all clear to travel, the family flew back to Australia to await a diagnosis. They received the heartbreaking confirmation that Leni had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, a type of blood cancer.
Treatment began straight away once the family arrived home. At just eight years old Leni would face nine months of aggressive chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, blood transfusions and more.
During this time Leni was absent from her regular school. To ensure she didn’t fall too far behind she was enrolled in our education support program at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. Leni’s mum, Kellie, told us how important our education support program was to Leni.
“The teacher support was amazing. It allowed Leni to still be involved with school and not fall too far behind her peers. They kept her brain from being lazy and the program educators made it fun”.
Kellie also explained that as a parent it allowed her to take a breather and not have to worry about how this would affect Leni’s education.
“It takes an added strain away from parents trying to fit in school work on top of everything else. With the education program teachers liaising with her regular school teacher to keep up to date on where and what to have done, it was one less stress for us” she said.
Leni is currently in year five at school and loves art, craft, maths, writing, dancing and basketball.
Leni told us the program made her feel “normal again”. Help other kids with cancer, like Leni, feel normal again by raising much-needed funds for our education support program. Register for Footy Colours Day here.