Ashton celebrates the end of his treatment, ringing the bell with his family

It was just after his sixth birthday in 2022 when Ashton’s local doctor told his parents he had pneumonia. “He started getting a cough and just a bit run down,” mum Dominique says.

After going in for a follow-up x-ray and finding out that the antibiotics he had been given hadn’t worked, Dominique was told that Ashton needed to go straight to the emergency department. After the doctors at the hospital ran some blood tests and ordered a new x-ray, they told her they suspected it was leukaemia, not pneumonia.

“I remember just being so worried, would he survive this? His doctor assured us it was treatable, but we didn’t know how difficult it was going to be the next couple of years and everything he would have to go through”

X-rays showed a large mass that was pushing on Ashton’s heart and beginning to cut off his airway. His blood tests showed that he was too unwell to go under general anaesthetic and had to have a lumbar puncture under only light sedation to confirm the horrible reality, that he had T-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). After the procedure, Ashton spent the next three days in the paediatric intensive care unit.

Life for their family changed overnight. They moved away from home to be closer to the Westmead Children’s Hospital, pulling their four-year-old daughter Savannah out of daycare.

“I felt really bad for Savannah because she was such a social kid and she went from going to daycare three days a week to nothing, and just being kept at home with family or being shuffled between grandparents because Ashton was in hospital.”

Aston was in and out of hospital for the next nine months, because his treatment was so intense. For the first month, he was on steroids, until he was well enough to start chemotherapy. From there he was on IV chemotherapy every week, sometimes more than once a day. Ashton’s body struggled with all the treatment he was receiving, and he needed to be hospitalized many times for fevers.

Dominique, who was seven months pregnant with their third child Haley at the time of Ashton’s diagnosis, quit her job as a teacher to care for Ashton.
“Having a baby when your kids are going through cancer treatment is not ideal, but she really brought so much laughter and happiness for our family. Ashton loved having Haley in the hospital. Her cuddles got him through the hardest days.”

After completing his third round of high-dose chemotherapy in January 2023, the doctors told Ashton’s family he was in remission and could transition to maintenance chemotherapy.

“Thankfully, maintenance treatment went smoothly, and Ashton had his central line removed in June of 2023. He was able to move back home and return to school in person.”

After being given a brochure by their social worker, the family registered with Camp Quality and went on their first Family Fun Day in December 2023.

“It was so fun. They had activities for every age group. I remember Savannah was doing the painting, the craft activities, Ashton went off to do the go-karting and we got to connect with other cancer families as well, which was amazing.”

In September of 2024, after successfully finishing his two-year treatment protocol, Ashton was able to ring the bell. Soon after, the family went on their first Camp Quality Family Camp.

It was just really nice to have that weekend to connect with the family and be together and meet other cancer families. To be able to meet people in person is really amazing. And especially for the kids as well, because they might not necessarily come across other kids that are facing cancer, apart from the oncology clinic. I know the memories made on that camp will last a lifetime.”

Ashton is loving being back at home and able to go to school, with mum Dominique saying “he’s gotten back into riding his bike and all those active things. And even though treatment took up two years of his childhood, which is a quarter of his life, he’s just so resilient and so strong.”

Savannah started kindergarten this year and is loving being at school and having the social connections with friends that she missed out on for the two years that Ashton was in treatment.
The family is looking forward to attending more Camp Quality programs in the future.

“Our family loves Camp Quality because we know how important making happy and positive memories is after going through the separation and isolation of childhood cancer.”