Life # 23 – A mother and son in need of help

This week, 52 Lives is helping a 10 year old boy called Kybie Hutton and his mum Kerry, from Kurwongbah in Queensland, Australia.

I heard about Kybie a few months ago when someone posted his story on our page, and started following his Facebook group. But it was only after reading a recent post that I realised just how much his family has been going through.

Last November, Kybie was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour called a pineal germinoma. It has travelled down his spine and is also causing damage to the disc behind his eyes. Kybie has been having chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane to try to shrink the tumour. The hope is that it becomes small enough to be operable, but he is not at that stage yet.

Kybie is being cared for solely by his mum, Kerry, who I recently found out is not well either. Kerry sadly also has cancer and has just had surgery to try to remove it. She had to stop working when she became ill and is now on a carer benefit. This remarkable woman is raising Kybie on her own, supporting him through this horrible disease, all while battling cancer herself.

Together, Kerry and Kybie are facing the biggest challenge of their lives. Let’s show them they are not doing it alone. 

What they need: Kerry and Kybie's treatments involve a lot of hospital visits and at the moment they are having to borrow a friend's car to get there. Kerry's own car is over 30 years old and has some rust damage that they hope can be repaired. 

Your donations will pay for either:
1. The cost of repairing Kerry's car
2.  A contribution to help Kerry buy a second hand car, if repairing her car is not possible or financially viable.
3. A petrol card to help with the many hospital trips

19/5/2014 - UPDATE

We have received an incredibly generous offer from someone who is willing to buy Kybie and Kerry a car. So we will use any donations raised on this page to help with insurance and registration costs or to buy petrol cards for Kybie and Kerry.

To read more about Kerry and Kybie, you can join Kybie's Facebook group.

(NB: AU$1  is roughly 55p in GBP - you can check the exchange rate here http://www.xe.com)