Photography: Carmen Bird.
Helen Houston will never forget the moment doctors told her that her young daughter Eleanor had a brain tumour and needed urgent surgery. Although her parents knew something was wrong when the four-year-old was vomiting and complained of a sore neck, the news came as a shock.
After surgery, Eleanor received 30 days of radiation to her brain and spine, and four rounds of chemotherapy. Ten months into her treatment, she underwent open-lung surgery after developing a life-threatening fungal infection.
In total, the South Aucklander spent more than 125 days in hospital during lockdown. Some nights, she was alone, but mostly Helen, 44, was by her side. While Eleanor, 10, is now cancer-free and can’t remember much of that time, she recalls her first night in the high dependency unit at Starship Hospital was her first sleepover away from her parents.
“I was the oldest one there,” says Eleanor.
“Babies were crying everywhere and I was like, ‘I can’t sleep with this noise.’”
Amazing support system
Throughout, the Child Cancer Foundation offered incredible support, with Eleanor collecting 500 Beads of Courage – one for each treatment or procedure she endured. Rainbow beads she received during her chemo sessions are cherished, as well as a flower one, which was a special courage bead she got to choose herself for spending a night alone. But her favourite is a purple heart to symbolise the end of her treatment.
“They remind me of how I pushed through when it was hard,” explains Eleanor.
When she finished her treatment in 2021, the family “thought we were done with cancer”. Until two years later, when Helen’s mum Christine Stone was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time.
As a precaution, Helen and her sister Jo also decided to get checked, with Helen shocked to discover she had breast cancer too.
“It was just too soon after Eleanor’s cancer and felt really unfair,” says Helen.
“There was no genetic link. They checked all that. It was just unlucky.”
Leaning on each other
Despite the cancer curveballs, Helen says her own diagnosis felt easier to bear than watching her daughter’s fight.
Helen tells, “It was nowhere near as intense and I also couldn’t feel sorry for myself because I had the amazingly brave Eleanor in the house. She would tell me, ‘It’s OK, Mum – to have surgery, you just go to sleep and then you wake up like this’. She had all the advice and it was super-helpful.”
Helen, Christine, 72, and Eleanor are now all clear of cancer, and doing their bit to give back.’
“We’ve lost friends through this journey,” shares Helen.
“Every birthday’s not one that’s guaranteed. It sounds cheesy, but you change your perspective and make memories. One in five don’t make it and that’s one of the hard parts.”
Spreading awareness
For the past five years, the trio has joined Jo to volunteer to shake buckets for the Child Cancer Foundation’s annual street appeal. Meanwhile, plucky Eleanor continues to show her brave spirit by speaking about her experience at school assembly, wearing her courage necklace.
The family wants people to know the importance of the practical and emotional support that the Child Cancer Foundation gives. Helen recalls the “backpack of goodies” at the beginning of their journey that included a much-appreciated coffee voucher, a snuggly blanket that Eleanor still uses and some real cutlery, so Helen didn’t have to continue eating with plastic knives and forks at the hospital.
Helen recalls, “Little things like that made life a little easier. We’re also grateful for the ongoing support once we’d finished treatment. We want to make sure all the children and families that experience cancer in New Zealand have what they need.”
Always looking on the brighter side
But it’s Eleanor’s courage and resilience that continue to leave an impression on her mum and nan.
“She was super-brave the whole time with all the needles, transfusions and surgeries,” says Helen.
“She also got a reputation for making pictures and cards for other kids on the ward, which she’d deliver to them. Her kindness towards others, even when she was really sick, is something that continues to stand out for me. “When Eleanor was diagnosed, we had no idea what Child Cancer Foundation did for children and families. Now we have lived it and experienced it, we understand the trauma and lifelong impact of a diagnosis like that, so anything we can do to support is worth us giving up our time.”
To donate or learn more about the Child Cancer Foundation, see childcancer.org.nz.
