Tayla Weir shares brain surgery, Ronald McDonald House journey

At her Queensland school she’s affectionately known as the “sock girl” but brain surgery survivor Tayla Weir’s journey to becoming a Ronald McDonald advocate would test the toughest. VIDEO.

*Graphic images

Pointing to the scar that wraps around her skull, an 11-year-old humbly shares how she found herself under a surgeon’s scalpel.

Fitzgerald State School Year 6 student Tayla Weir was just seven when her head began to ache, worsening to the point it became unbearable and life was foggy.

“I was vomiting, and really tired and so mum decided to bring me to Gladstone Hospital,” Tayla, whose family had lived there in 2018, said.

“They put a tube down my throat because I wasn’t eating or drinking, I was just completely out (of it).”

Tayla was flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital on a Sunday where it was discovered a tumour was causing swelling in her brain.

Mackay student Tayla Weir after her second brain surgery in early 2019. Picture: Contributed

“They put me in for emergency neurosurgery (on the Monday) and that’s how it all started,” she said.

For Taylor, the experience is all a blur, but her mum Michelle Hunt vividly remembers the ordeal.

The surgery drained the fluid caused by a “hard mass” or lesion on her daughter’s brain.

“I think I just went into survival mode, into mum mode, and just tried to focus on when she would be out … she came out of (surgery) good, she was back to the old Tayla,” Ms Hunt said.

Fitzgerald State School Year 6 student Tayla Weir has had her sister and best friend, Matilda, by her side during two operations on the brain. Picture: Contributed

Three months on however, the cyst attached to the lesion on her brain had grown, requiring a craniotomy to remove it.

“She had a bleed on the brain after (that surgery) or haemorrhage I guess they’d call it, or clinically, it’s called a stroke,” Ms Hunt said.

“Then she had some swelling of the brain which ended us back (in hospital).

Mackay student Tayla Weir after her second brain surgery in early 2019. Picture: Contributed

“So a six-to-10-day hospital stay turned into three weeks.”

Ms Hunt said she “was so thankful” they had been staying at the Ronald McDonald Family House at the time so she could run to the hospital with Tayla on her hip.

Now, four years on, Tayla is continuing to inspire others with her story including her Fitzgerald school peers who this week eagerly snapped up McDonald’s-themed silly socks for $5 a pair, an annual tradition earning her the nickname of “the sock girl”.

Fitzgerald State School Year 6 student Tayla Weir (far right), pictured with younger sister Matilda and mum Michelle Hunt, is fundraising for the Ronald McDonald House Charities by selling $5 pairs of silly socks after undergoing brain surgery on two occasions. Picture: Heidi Petith

Tayla has raised almost $6000 in total and has no plans on slowing with Mackay soon to have its own RMFH at the Mackay Base Hospital.

“I want to give back to (Ronald McDonald House Charities) because they gave my family and me somewhere to stay,” Tayla said.

“I think it’s good to have a room in Mackay for families like ours,” she added, mentioning her favourite part of the houses were the kitchens and the yummy food.

For now, Tayla will continue relying on Brisbane’s RMFH for her three-to-six-monthly check-ups with her oncologist, while needing to take ongoing hormone replacement therapy and seizure medications.

Fitzgerald State School Year 6 student Tayla Weir (right), pictured with younger sister Matilda, is fundraising for the Ronald McDonald House Charities by selling $5 pairs of silly socks after undergoing brain surgery on two occasions. Picture: Heidi Petith

“They will never remove that lesion (on her brain) because it’s stable and it’s too risky,” Ms Hunt said.

“It’s right on the pituitary gland … that’s why she’s so small.

“She actually has the bone age of about a 10-year-old.

“Even though we are going through something horrible, (Tayla’s) pretty upbeat and we always just look at it as, ‘It could be worse’, that’s the way we have to look at it to survive.”