An Adelaide family has found themselves seeking help from the kindness of strangers through crowdfunding to secure crucial cancer treatment for their child overseas.
The hopes for a solution seemed promising to be found locally, with plans in Adelaide for a cutting-edge Proton Therapy Unit situated in a North Terrace basement. However, that space remains an unfulfilled promise, left empty for over a decade.
In 2024, young Levi received a devastating diagnosis of stage-four medulloblastoma, an aggressive and relentless brain tumor. This news struck both the nine-year-old and his mother, Jade Elston, with disbelief.
“I often find myself in tears,” Elston shared with 9News.
“It feels surreal, almost like a bad dream. As a mother, you feel utterly helpless and unsure of the next steps.”
Despite enduring some of the most intensive chemotherapy and radiation therapies available, Levi achieved remission not once, but twice.
But now, the 11-year-old’s cancer has come back.
“They did say when children relapse with medulloblastoma, especially with this third relapse, they often pass,” Elston said.
“He’s gone through a lot. He can hardly even walk to the toilet, he gets puffed out walking to the toilet.”
The only hope left for the family is a treatment called proton therapy, which is specifically targeted to treat childhood cancers.
“We specifically need that because there’s no way to operate,” Elston said.
That treatment was promised for South Australia back in 2016, with $500 million spent on the Bragg Centre on North Terrace and its purpose-built bunker.
It was meant to house a machine which never got built.
“Let’s not assume that, had there not been a delay, this program would have been in place by now,” government spokesperson Tom Koutsantonis told 9News.
SA’s Health Research Institute took the machine’s developer to court and last month won back $35 million over the failed contract.
But that’s cold comfort to the Elston family, who are now forced to crowdfund for an overseas trip to Singapore for the life-saving treatment.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler wasn’t available to answer questions, instead telling 9News he’s now canvassing other states to potentially host a proton therapy machine.
Whatever happens next, Elston has this message for politicians.
“Pull your head in and get it fixed, children are losing lives,” she said.
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