THIS time last year, young Leeton shire resident Travis Newman was living a carefree and happy life.
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However, that all changed in November 2017 when he was diagnosed with bone cancer.
In the weeks leading up to the diagnosis Travis had been sick with a cold, but then he started complaining of having a sore foot.
Instincts soon kicked in for his mother Linda, who took him to see a doctor in Griffith.
After initial tests, they were flown to Sydney straight away for a biopsy.
”On Monday November 20 he had a biopsy … we got the official results on the Wednesday confirming it was Ewing sarcoma,” Mrs Newman said.
“He started chemo on the Saturday.
“We did get to come home every now and again, but the majority of the time we were at the Westmead Children’s Hospital, staying at Ronald McDonald House.”
During that time the rest of the Newman family visited when they could, but they also had the family farm, work and school to deal with.
“It was a very hard time for everyone,” Mrs Newman said. Travis’ chemotherapy continue to help shrink the tumour before it could be operated on.
He has had the surgery and doctors are confident they’ve gotten all of it and the cancer hasn’t spread further.
Travis is now back home on the farm and last week started back at Whitton-Murrami Public School for two days.
He will need to return to Sydney next month to see how he is tracking. In the meantime, his grandmother Rhonda Horsey will be fundraising for the charity Little Wings, which greatly assisted Travis and Mrs Newman.
“Anytime we could come home, Little Wings was able to get us back here whether by plane or car and it didn’t cost us a cent,” Mrs Newman said.
“It was a God send. Before Travis got sick we didn’t know about Little Wings, but now I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
Little Wings is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to provide professional, safe and free flight and ground transfer services for children from rural and regional NSW to specialised medical services at the children’s hospitals in the city.
Its aim is to support families to reduce the financial burden, emotional strain and travel fatigue when a child is sick.
Mrs Horsey will be selling raffle tickets at the Golden Apple over the coming weeks to raise funds for the charity, with residents urged to keep an eye out for her and buy a ticket.
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