Summer is a time of school holidays, sunshine and family fun, but for nine-year-old Scarlett, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in March, the care-free fun of summer has been replaced with a cruel regimen of hospital visits, chemotherapy and surgeries.
And Cardup single-mother of three, Renee Murray, has finally asked for help.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I’m asking for help,” wrote Renee on the gofundme page she set up on January 5.
“I’m not the type to ask for anything from anyone, and I pride myself on it.”
“I’m trying to make all the time we get with her special as we don’t know what the future holds,” wrote Renee.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”
It has been a long and painful journey for the family, who first noticed something was wrong in March 2021, when Scarlett, who turned nine in November, developed swelling around her jaw.
“My mum actually noticed that she looked like she had mumps, her jaw and neckline was quite swollen,” Renee told The Examiner.
“Over that weekend we noticed she was quite tired, so I took her to the GP after hours. We were told it was a viral infection and to wait it out.”
But Scarlett’s situation quickly deteriorated, and Renee’s motherly instincts kicked in. She leapt into action, taking her daughter off the antibiotics she had been prescribed and taking her to her family doctor for further advice.
“Within three days the swelling had become quite red and aggressive, so I took her to our local GP and told them what was going on.”
The GP agreed with Renee’s decision to stop the course of antibiotics and again told Renee to keep an eye on her.
But things went from bad to worse when Scarlett, who always walked the two-minute route to school with her older brother, Chace, began asking her grandmother to drive her.
The final straw came about a week before Scarlett was diagnosed, after a day out to Adventure World.
“When they came back she said, ‘Mum, I had so much fun’ but then she said, ‘look at all the bruises on my back’ and she turned around and her whole back was black and blue from sitting on the rides.”
“I took her back to the doctor and said, ‘Nope, there’s something going on. I just had that mother’s intuition that something was wrong, and it wasn’t what I was being told.”
Finally, by the end of March, doctors agreed to run a raft of tests, including blood tests and ultrasounds, to find out what was wrong.
“The blood tests came back and there was an abnormality in her blood. I had to rush her to Perth Children’s Hospital,” said Renee, who works part time as an Education Assistant for children with special needs.
“It happened so quickly from finding out something was wrong. I never thought I would turn around and find out that my child has leukaemia,” she said.
“That night just blew my mind, because I still hadn’t figured out what was going on. I had to show a letter at Perth Children’s Hospital and they quickly let us in.”
“The first thing I thought was that she had COVID, but then I got told that she has leukaemia and it was very serious. It was a lot to take in.”
“She was diagnosed on a Thursday and the first surgery was on the Tuesday. We found out it was present in over 94 per cent of her body.
For the next three months Scarlett stayed in hospital, undergoing four major lung surgeries after the discovery of a fungal infection, as well as bone-marrow tests to monitor the spread.
And while Scarlett returned home in June, the treatment plan is ongoing, with regular hospital visits for chemotherapy treatment, as well as other complications that have arisen.
“She’s just recently had a staph infection, and she went in for another week and a half because the staph infection went into her bloodstream,” said Renee.
For the next two years or more, Scarlett will undergo chemotherapy and bone marrow tests every three months.
“I’ve had to take so much time off work, I’m cooking every day because Scarlett has to eat fresh food, she can’t have any food that has been sitting around,” said Renee.
“I took off so much time just to be with Scarlett, because her mental health was deteriorating and she was going back and forth to the hospital. I have a mortgage, a car, bills and I’ve been struggling.”
“Scarlett loves kayaking, swimming, gymnastics and dancing. She loves all that stuff but she just can’t do it anymore because she is so weak.”
“It’s like a lockdown most of the time,” said Renee.
“But we don’t encourage her to go out because of the infection risk – even with family members coming to visit we have to be careful. We had a very quiet Christmas this year.”
Renee is hoping to raise $20,000 through the gofundme page, which has so far reached $6000.
The money will go towards medication, physio treatments and other daily expenses, as well as tutoring for Scarlett, who has missed a full year of school due to her illness.
“We just bought a new mattress for Scarlett as her bruising makes it hard for her to sleep, and because she has lost so much weight so we’re buying her new clothes, too.”
“The thing is, I don’t like to ask for anyone’s help, but it was the last thing I could do. I would like to repay my mum has helped with money, and I want to make sure Scarlett’s OK, that she has the things that we need to help her.”
To visit Renee’s gofundme page, visit gofundme.com/f/trmjer-scarletts-fight
