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Go Girls star Alix Bushnell’s family drama

After a shock diagnosis, Go Girls actress Alix Bushnell is learning to live with hope.
After a shock diagnosis for her baby son, Go Girls actress Alix Bushnell is learning to live with hope.

Propped up on the couch for his first official portrait on the family estate in Greytown, George Alexander’s grins are met with delight. While on camera he looks every bit the baby prince, his actress mum, Alix Bushnell, says having the same first and middle name as the heir to the throne was pure coincidence.

“The name George is actually for my sister, who’s Georgina. My grandfather’s name was Alexander and obviously my name is Alix,” she says with a laugh.

Alix (32) was set up with George’s father, Chris Tunnell (33), by friends in Wellington. She had moved down from Auckland after her marriage ended, so she could finish the degree she put on hold to star as Britta McMann in the hit TV show Go Girls. Alix says there was “instant chemistry” when she laid eyes on him. “We met up at this bar called The Library. We both tried to play it cool, but the next day Chris was like, ‘Do you want to go on another date?’”

Already the father of two boys, Lachlan (9) and Riley (7), it was Chris who knew instantly that Alix was pregnant when she complained of a metallic taste in her mouth. Happily, the pregnancy went smoothly and the couple even managed to have a “fun day” when she was being induced at Wellington Hospital.

“From 7am until 1pm it was party time in our room,” Alix laughs. “Chris was falling off the Swiss ball and rolling around from having too much gas.”

After finding fame on Go Girls alongside Anna Hutchinson, Alix has launched a blog, mummalove.co.nz about her experiences.

While the new mum admits the 16-hour labour was hard work, she says George’s arrival into the world was fairly straightforward. He weighed a healthy four kilos and breastfed straightaway. But Alix and Chris’ joy turned to concern when after 48 hours, George still had not passed meconium, a newborn’s first faeces. He was taken away to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where he was placed in an incubator with wires on his chest and a tube up his nose.

Chris remembers how from that moment their whole world changed. “It didn’t feel real,” he says quietly. “We had this perfectly healthy boy for two days and then 10 days of uncertainty – it was horrible.”

Doctors suspected George had Hirschsprung’s disease, a disorder that creates a blockage in the large intestine. But they also mentioned the possibility of cystic fibrosis (CF), which the couple say they put “right down the list” as their “worst case scenario”.

To make matters worse, Alix was admitted to hospital herself after experiencing unexplained fainting. Because she was born with a hole in her heart, she had to see a cardiologist to determine the cause. And while her heart was found to be physically fine, being away from her sick baby was heartbreaking.

“The hardest moments are those when you have to leave your baby,” she says. “You don’t want to go back to the ward, you don’t want to go home – you want to sleep under the incubator,” she says, the tears welling.

George spent the first few weeks of his life in intensive care.

One day as Alix was holding George in the NICU, she kissed him and immediately knew something wasn’t right – his skin tasted salty. Sure enough, a sweat test revealed his sodium chloride level was over 90 millimoles per litre. A reading of over 60 is considered conclusive proof of CF. The diagnosis meant both Alix and Chris are carriers of the genetic disease, information that came as a complete shock. Although one in every 25 New Zealanders are thought to carry the gene, neither had any family members who were sufferers.

“CF was a knockout blow,” Chris explains. “It was heart-breaking learning how difficult George’s life could be. We couldn’t have got through that time without our family.”

When the couple arrived home with George, Chris, who’s a civil engineer, immediately began researching the condition. But for Alix, finding out more about CF, which affects one in 3500 New Zealand babies, proved overwhelming. “The information is about 30 years old. It will tell you children die when they’re 12 years old or that they need lung or heart transplants. I had a doctor tell me, ‘Oh, people with CF live until they’re 40 years old these days’, and I just burst into tears,” she recalls.

With advancements in medicine, Alix and Chris have now been told George can live a long and healthy life. And while they want to ensure his childhood is as normal as possible, Alix has ruled out kindergarten and swimming lessons due to the risk to his health. If George gets a cold, he has to go straight onto antibiotics to prevent scarring to his lungs.

For now, the four-month-old has physiotherapy every day and, because CF also affects his digestive system, he must eat pancreatic enzymes called Creons at mealtimes to help him break down food.

“He’s doing well and putting on weight and getting taller,” Chris says proudly. “While you can’t slacken off, that sort of progress does make you think ‘Maybe we don’t have to have him in a bubble.’”

The couple’s wedding next summer will also serve as a celebration of George turning one. “It will tie us all together,” says Alix of the special day.

The couple do want more children but say they’ll undergo genetic counselling and look to IVF to ensure their other children don’t suffer from CF. With George growing more robust each day, Alix is looking to get back to work, teaching drama in Lower Hutt. After a few years out of the spotlight, she’s also hoping to start acting again. But for now, she’s busy writing an online blog about her experiences as a mother, using the platform to reach out to other mums whose babies suffer from a chronic illness.

And if that’s not enough to keep her busy, there’s also the couple’s summer wedding to plan. Chris popped the question over lunch on a park bench, while George was still in the NICU. He even came up with the five-carat design of Alix’s engagement ring himself.

“I’ve already had the big white wedding,” Alix admits. “We were wanting to go to a registry office for the ceremony, but our mothers said, ‘Absolutely not.’”

Instead, the marquee will go up on Alix’s parents’ farm, where the loving couple now pose for pictures. On it stands a 100-year-old convent, the perfect setting for their intimate nuptials. They’ll also use the special day to mark George’s first birthday.

“We want to be a family and this will just tie us all together,” says Alix with a smile.

What is cystic fibrosis?

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-threatening genetic condition in New Zealand. One in 25 people will be a carrier of the CF gene. If a couple both carries the gene, with every pregnancy there is a 25% chance that their child will have CF, a 50% chance that their child will not have CF but will carry the gene, and a 25% chance that their child will not have CF and will not be a carrier.

CF sufferers secrete very thick, sticky mucus, which can clog the tiny air passages in the lungs and trap bacteria. Repeated infections can cause irreversible lung damage. The pancreas can also be impaired, preventing the release of enzymes which are needed for the digestion of food. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand, the disease is manageable and life expectancy is increasing all the time due to new therapies and knowledge.

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