Talon and I have created this fundraiser in hopes to make a small contribution that can help in a huge way.

On the 25th of November 2023 I thought I’d had given birth to a healthy baby boy Azia. Being discharged the next day to start our new lives as a family of 4 including my eldest son Ash. I knew something wasn’t right and living in a small town 40 minutes away from the hospital I gave birth in we had to think quick. Azia and I were rushed in an ambulance not realising at all how hard the next 3 weeks would be. Azia had an infection, that still to this day we don’t know what it was. They immediately did blood test and attempted two lumber punches both were unsuccessful. Talon and I were informed Azia would have to be taken into the nursery and put into an incubator as they didn’t know whether he was infectious to the other babies. Later that night the paediatrician told us he would have a minimum stay of 21 days for antibiotics, as they were treating him for worse case scenario being Meningitis. This absolutely broke our hearts. Being only a month out from Christmas and having a 3 year old that relies on us now we had to hope for the best. Instead of going the full 3 weeks with replacing cannula after cannula for the antibiotics, Talon made the decision to fly to Melbourne with Azia to have an in-line cannula put in. I was stuck in hospital fighting an infection so I had to let them go. It was the worse few days of my life. They flew to Melbourne and the first in-line cannula failed and after 2-3 more more failed lumber punches we decided he needed a break so they were unable to come home the next day. I was discharge from hospital and was given a room in the family house of Ronald McDonald in Wodonga which made things easier for me Talon and my Eldest son knowing we would only be a 100m walk away from the nursery. Azia flew back to Wodonga 4 days after his arrival and finished his course of antibiotics in the nursery at Wodonga Hospital. Unfortunately the in-line cannula rejected after only 5 days so we had to resort back to cannulas in his arms, hands and feet. He was the healthiest baby in the hospital also weighing in at 8.8 pounds, the only issue was finishing his antibiotics. He went from 3 different antibiotics to dropping down to 1 and he was released from the nursery care on the 18th of December just in time for Christmas. Without the help of the Ronald McDonald house and all of the doctors from Melbourne and Wodonga I don’t think Azia would be with us today. Fundraising for the Good Friday Appeal is very close to my heart, we only had a small glimpse of how scary things can turn out and how quickly things can go sour, and I hope to contribute this year and every year ahead.