Mackenzie Everett’s: Little River town raises $50k for Brisbane girl’s cancer treatment

A tiny Victorian town of just 1500 people has rallied to try and save a young Brisbane girl who is battling to beat a rare form of liver cancer. How she captured their hearts.

Brave Brisbane girl Mackenzie Everett, 7, has a rare liver cancer and has had to travel more than 1700kn for treatment. Pictured: Patrick Woods.

Mackenzie Everett’s battle to beat a rare cancer captured the big hearts of a tiny town more than 1700km from home, who rallied to try and save her.

The seven-year-old was diagnosed in 2023 with hepatoblastoma – a rare form of liver cancer that affects babies and young children.

She has endured a liver transplant, 54 doses of chemotherapy, 45 surgeries or biopsies and 23 doses of radiation, and her treatment is ongoing.

In January this year, Mackenzie, her father Steve, mother Kerrin and her four-year-old brother Sam packed up their Shailer Park home in Brisbane’s south and travelled to Victoria in their caravan in search of new lifesaving treatments.

Mackenzie’s transplanted liver had become infected and wasn’t responding to antibiotics.

Mackenzie Everett, 7, has a rare liver cancer. Pictured with her family, father Steve, mother Kerrin, her four-year-old brother Sam. Photo: Patrick Woods.

Steve and Sam parked up their van at the Little River Hotel near Geelong, while Kerrin stayed with Mackenzie at the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital for months.

“We got to know the staff and the locals who fell in love with Sam and treated us as part of the family,” Mr Everett said.

“When Kerrin and Mackenzie were able to visit on leave from the hospital, they fell in love with Mackenzie too.

“They are just an incredible bunch of people who make everyone feel welcome and take it upon themselves to help where help is needed.”

The town’s 1,500 people raised more than $50,000 in just three days, surprising the family with money after they recently returned home to Queensland.

Little River resident Peter Vernon said the community felt compelled to help Mackenzie.

“It’s hard to watch a little girl go through what she is and not do something about it,” he said.

The hope is the money can give the family a much deserved holiday to Disney World in the US and help them find overseas treatments and drug trials not available in Australia.

“We’re not naive to the challenges that we face but we weren’t ever going to die wondering to try and find a cure or an answer,” Mr Everett said.

“If it’s not in US, we’ll look in Europe.

“Every day, we will get up and search.”

Mackenzie Everett, 7, with her four-year-old brother Sam. Photo: Patrick Woods.

Mrs Everett said her daughter had been extremely resilient throughout her gruelling treatments and has never given up.

“Even on the bad days, she’s still always just thinking about other people and trying to make people smile,” Mrs Everett.

While they search the world for their own miracle, the Everetts have also started a charity to help fund treatment trips for other patients, and to build an online artificial intelligence resource to trawl medical studies to better connect people with potential treatments.

The charity ‘Fartsicorn’ is named after Mackenzie’s two great loves – unicorns and farts.

“If this foundation successfully can raise enough money, then our ultimate goal would be to help facilitate connections of families to international hospitals so that they can take their kids there for treatment and fund some of that for them if that needs to happen,” he said.

For more information or to donate visit fartsicorn.org.

Originally published as Mackenzie Everett’s: Little River town raises $50k for Brisbane girl’s cancer treatment