Connor and his family have fun on Camp Quality programs

Connor was a happy 7-year-old boy who loved playing outdoors with his two big brothers.

Over the course of a couple months Connor started feeling a bit unwell. Rebecca took him to the doctor and started to notice that he was pale and bruised. “We have three boys, so bruises and being tired all seemed normal. We had a bit of an explanation for everything,” says mum Rebecca.

While on holiday, Rebecca noticed he was tired and as soon as they got back, Connor started having intense stomach pains. They ended up at a local emergency department where he had a blood test and was sent home.

“That night we got a phone call from the pathology team telling us to come straight to Westmead Hospital. There was probably another 12 hours of testing and then we were told that Connor had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). We never, ever thought it would be cancer. It’s not something that was even on our radar.”

Connor was admitted to hospital that day and he was there for two weeks straight. During this time, he had a central line put in and started chemotherapy. He went home briefly, but a string of infections in his central line led to a long stint in hospital.

“It was infection after infection for about two months. Then they took the central line out and put in a PICC line in his arm. He was immunocompromised and just so susceptible to infection.”

Luckily, Connor’s grandparents lived near the hospital, and he was able to visit them for a few hours a few times a week during his treatment.

It took Connor seven and a half months to get through his first stage of treatment. Now, he’ll be on oral chemotherapy maintenance treatment until August 2025.

“Oral chemotherapy is given by us every night, and side effects now are very minimum.”

After Connor was diagnosed, his two older brothers also had to adjust to life with cancer. One parent had to be at the hospital with Connor and the other at home with the other two boys.

“We would pick them up from school, they still went to sports training, saw friends and we tried to keep things relatively normal for them.”

“The amount of support we had from our community, the sporting communities, work and our friends were amazing. We were so lucky.”

Rebecca says that she struggles more with the diagnosis now than at the time. “At the time you go into flight mode and because we have the other boys, you just do what you have to do. But now I look back at the photos from the last year and that’s hard.”

Rebecca heard about Camp Quality through a social worker at the hospital. “I got a message about a Family Experience over Easter and thought that that would be safe. I really wanted him to do something fun.”

Although initially feeling overwhelmed, Connor and his brother Jake had a really fun day. Connor was in a wheelchair at the time, so Rebecca’s mum also joined the day to help her manage the travel. “It was so nice, it was a short event, and there weren’t too many people. He really loved it.”

More recently, the family went to Umina Beach on a Family Retreat. “It was amazing, the park was beautiful. My kids love the outdoors, so they went fishing and it was just perfect. We opened the $200 ALDI gift voucher, and both just cried. The generosity just doesn’t stop.”

After easing back into it, Connor is now back at school full-time. “He loves it. He loves the social side of things but he’s always tired by the middle of the week. It’s both the physical and mental exhaustion after missing so much time from school.” But Rebecca says he is doing well, and his teachers are incredibly supportive.

Connor has started playing cricket this season and loves riding his bike with the neighbourhood kids at any chance he gets.

Rebecca says “Camp Quality has been such an amazing support to our family. Providing us with many safe and fun activities for our family to attend during this time.”