Two-and-a-half-year-old Ryder had been battling with blood noses. But his family didn’t get too concerned because his mother had a history of blood noses as a child.
But when Ryder’s became more frequent – as often as every day or second day and lasted for as long as 40 minutes – his mother Isobel McKenzie and her mother Carole decided to take him to the Royal Children’s Hospital to have his nostrils cauterised, just as Carole had done for Isobel when she was a child.
“We just assumed it was the same kind of thing,” Carole McKenzie said.
Ryder was admitted to the hospital on December 27. After a bone marrow extraction and numerous tests, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, which is characterised by the rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells that collect in bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal blood cells.
Shock set in for Ryder’s mother and grandmother, who were still recovering from Carole’s diagnosis with rectal cancer just six months earlier.
But in a twist of fate, Carole, 52, of Doreen, describes her own battle with cancer “a blessing in disguise”.
Carole was determined to be completely open with Ryder about her treatment and carried a chemotherapy port around with her during each treatment cycle. So when Ryder was implanted with a port, he said to his grandmother, “Nan I’ve got my own port now”.
When Ryder’s scalp hair began falling out, Carole decided to shave off her own, too. The shave took place last Sunday.
She’s also hosting a party with about 30 friends and family members who will also shave or colour their hair on March 15 as part of the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave campaign, from March 13-16.
The year 6 teacher at Craigieburn Primary School said such campaigns were so important.
“We kind of go along in a bubble and it’s not until you’re pushed into this world that the blinkers come off.”
