Eli’s cancer battle stirs ‘army of amazing people’

Community support buoys family after son’s devastating diagnosis.

JACKIE Kent’s heart is aching.

The Yeppoon mum and her husband Stu are grappling with the most devastating news.

Their beautiful boy Eli has cancer.

The 12-year-old was in early February diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in his right ankle, a form of cancer that occurs in and around the bones.

A full body scan a week later would deliver more heartbreak – the cancer had spread.

“It felt like everything was against us,” Jackie said.

But the family would quickly discover they are not alone on this harrowing journey.

Financial and emotional support has been flooding in from all quarters as they brace for a nine-month battle against the disease.

“I can’t imagine not having that army behind us - and that’s what it is, an army of amazing people,” Jackie said.

Eli Kent, 12, with dad Stu at his bedside after his first round of chemotherapy at Queensland Children’s Hospital. Picture: Contributed

“I’ve told Eli he’s got three armies – his family, his hospital team and his army of people all over the world.

“Not a lot of people have got that.

“We’ve got to remind him of that, that he is very much loved.”

Eli had been suffering intermittent pain in his ankle and foot since September last year but it reached a crescendo when the family was in England visiting Jackie’s mum in December.

On their return to Yeppoon, Jackie took him to a GP who ordered an x-ray, which showed a piece of the talus bone was eroded.

An MRI then revealed what was first thought to be osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone.

But a bone biopsy would confirm the worst.

“The doctor sat me down with a couple of nurses and said Eli’s got a tumour,” Jackie said.

“I thought, ‘Oh God, no’. It was like that room just swallowed me up.

“We went through all the scenarios about what we would do and I decided that I would tell Eli.

“I went upstairs and we sat on the bed and he said, “What is it, mum? What is it?’

“I said, ‘You’ve got a tumour, mate’.

“He cried, he just cried and he asked me, ‘Mum, am I doing to die?’

“I told him he wasn’t going to die. I can’t let him die.”

The pair steeled themselves for the drive home to Yeppoon.

“We walked through the door and Eli just fell into Stu’s arms and cried.

“I then had to tell Stu. It was the hardest day of my life.”

Within days, the family was flown to Queensland Children’s Hospital for what they thought would be a grafting regime of chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery on the ankle.

Jackie said the revelation that the cancer has spread makes the treatment so much harder.

“First of all we’ve got to beat the bloody cancer before they can do anything with his ankle,” she said.

“You just feel like you’re in another world, that it’s not really happening but it is happening.”

The family, including their four-year-old daughter Ella, have relocated to Brisbane.

Their world has been turned upside down but they are buoyed by the support they have received.

“We are down here in this world of cancer but every day I’m getting messages,” Jackie said.

“Eli’s getting boxes of gifts and he can’t believe it – and we can’t believe it.

“The fundraising is mind-blowing as well. We see the amount of money they’ve raised and it’s incredible.

“The town is amazing. We’ve had such amazing support.

“Even in England they’ve got a fundraiser going for us.

“People have their own issues to deal with but they want to help us.

“This is such a horrible thing but everybody is so kind. It really is overwhelming.”

Eli is into his next round of chemotherapy, in which he is receiving two large doses of two different drugs.

Jackie knows that will make him sick again but “you just hold him and be with him”.

“No one should have go to through this.

Mum Jackie Kent says Eli is showing incredible resilience. Picture: Contributed

“Eli asked me why this happened and what he did wrong to get cancer. We keep telling him he didn’t do anything, he was just unlucky.

“His resilience is amazing. I’ve never really seen it but for the knocks that he’s taken, the blows that he’s had, the things that doctors have told him, he listens, he cries, he takes it somehow and he just picks himself back up.”

Jackie said the family was just taking one day at a time.

“It’s so hard. Your heart hurts every day,” she said.

“I’ve told Eli just have your day, just get through each day, that’s all you can do.

“We have to keep him strong. We’ve all got to be strong and have a belief that we’re going to get through this.

“We can’t give up, we cannot give up, there’s no way we can give up.”