Zoe Rossiter on how the Starlight Foundation helped her daughter Blair through cancer

BLAIR is just seven years old. But in her short, remarkable life she has already beaten cancer.

The Canberra-based girl was diagnosed with blood cancer when she was almost four. In the three years since then, her family has moved states and spent weeks on end in hospital, but they’ve also had some amazing experiences thanks to the Starlight Foundation. They’ve rode on camels in Broome and watched circus performers swing from the ceiling at Circus Oz. But there have also been some darker moments. Here Blair’s mum Zoe shares her family’s story:

Blair and her brother Harry with some of the cast of Circus Oz. Source: Supplied

“It was the 4th of April in 2013. Blair had been unwell and had a temperature and her legs were sore. She didn’t want to do anything. We took her to the doctor and they said I was overreacting. They thought it might have been juvenile arthritis. We went to so many doctors because she was still unwell, and during the tenth visit I said, ‘I’m not leaving until you do a blood test’.

So they did, and they rang the next day and told me I needed to go to the Children’s Hospital in Canberra. My husband was interstate for work at the time. I rang him and said, ‘You need to come home now.’ I drove Blair to the hospital and when we got there they said, ‘There’s no treatment for this in Canberra. You’re on the 8pm flight to Sydney tonight.’ She had blood cancer, so it was in her whole body.

So we came down to Sydney, thankfully we got a room at Ronald McDonald house and Blair and I lived there for the next eight months while my husband and Harry were in Canberra. Then in December my husband got a job transfer and we all moved to Sydney.

The next day we started treatment. She was three when she started having chemotherapy and that went on for about two years.

We’re a defence family so we move all the time. That wasn’t really a problem. We had to find a school for my son and things like that.

I never let anyone, including myself, get upset in front of her. We never actually used the word cancer. So she doesn’t know. We explained to her that she was unwell and she was in the hospital to get better and she would have lots of medicine. We just said ‘You’re sick’ or ‘you’re unwell’. We’re very clear with the mechanics of it all, like saying ‘tomorrow you’re fasting, then you’re having a back needle’. She knows what chemo is and that her hair was getting shorter and shorter. We met a lot of families who felt that they should tell their children everything. But she was only three and we just knew so many people who have known someone who died of cancer.

Trapeze performers at Circus Oz in Melbourne. Source: Supplied

We first became involved with the Starlight Foundation during the second week that we were in hospital. We were trying to work everything out and suddenly this flash of silver and purple came by and they made Blair balloons. You can request movies and they can chat to her and paint her nails. It’s fantastic. She had her fourth and fifth birthdays in hospital and they were all lovely. Blair’s nickname at the hospital was the firecracker.

Our family was granted a Starlight wish, which was an unexpected surprise. So we spoke to Blair and explained that she could pick something. She came up with camel riding in the desert. The joke in our household was that Mummy wanted to meet Hugh Jackman and Blair wanted camel riding on the beach. We went to Broome and rode camels in the sand.

Our son Harry has just turned nine and we’ve tried really hard to have him involved. He got to choose an activity too and he chose a little plane flight over Broome. We’ve always kept it fair. When Blair gets lots of gifts we kept things equal and special. We do special things together too.

For Blair’s seventh birthday a few weeks ago we went to watch Circus Oz in Melbourne. It was lovely. The kids really enjoyed the juggling and the trapeze.

In April, the doctors said Blair was well again and her prognosis is all clear, thankfully. She’ll do monthly blood tests for the next five years and after that annual visits to the doctor, but knock on wood everything will go well. Her hair has started to grow back and she’s at school again. It’s great.”