On the 15 Feb 2000, Lenita had a temperature; she was took her
to the doctor, who gave her mum a script to fill if she got worse.
Over the next day or so she seemed to pick up, so her mum did not
fill the script.
The 17 Feb was Lenita's birthday. In the morning Lenita and her
mum went shopping, came home and Lenita had a sleep before her
party. She was not real happy when she woke up, the day got worse.
It was teaming of rain, relatives were at their house for her
party. Lenita felt very hot, her dad rung the doctor and said to
bring her down. The doctor was a locum, her father has very
suntanned skin and the doctor said she looked pale - I
want blood tests done now. Her dad took her down to get blood
tests, then brought her home. Shortly the doctor rung, said she
needed to go to hospital, her mum said after her party, he said no,
now. That was the beginning of our journey. There were so many
blood tests taken that night, Lenita would not settle, she just
wanted to escape from the hospital.
The next morning, about 6 doctors and nurses headed their way,
who told them they thought Lenita had leukaemia. They were flown to
Brisbane that afternoon.
Lenita had many complications. She spent 18 days in ICU, and 2
major stomach operations. Prednisone had burnt her stomach, two
thirds of the blood vessels in her stomach needed to be tied, this
was done by a doctor from the burns unit. These ops were in April,
then Lenita started to recover. Doctors and nurses told her mum
Lenita is a miracle.
They spent most of the first year of treatment in Brisbane
because of Lenita's complications, but after the ops, her condition
improved. Her treatment lasted 2 and a half years, now Lenita's mum
and dad have a healthy normal daughter.
Many friends and families had put Lenita's name on prayer chains
throughout her treatment.
Doctors did not know how well Lenita would do at school,
especially in maths. Lenita is one of the top students at her
level.
In Lenita's words
Camp Quality is great. I get to mix with other children that
have been through similar things to me, and talk about our
experiences. When we go on camp we forget about the past and have
fun.
We do lots of cool activities, such as whale watching, giant
swing and see other places we have never been. Mum gets to see the
photos! I went to camp at Milson Island, I liked walking around the
island and seeing what was around. It was such a cool place I just
loved it
Camp Quality makes me realise I am not the only one who has had
a really bad illness. We can all help one another cause we're all
part of a big Camp Quality family and family looks after family
We also have fun days out and my mum comes, and family
weekends.
