St Clair: Community rallies to send terminally ill Alexandra Di Censo to Disneyland
A six-year-old girl's terminal diagnosis has sparked an extraordinary fundraising effort by her mother's hospital colleagues to grant her Disney princess dreams.
It had been an ordinary day for Hilda Di Censo, who was working her usual shift as a nurse at her western Sydney hospital.
Mrs Di Censo had been doing her normal rounds checking on patients, when she received a phone call that her six-year-old daughter, Alexandra was very unwell.
After rushing her to the Children’s Hospital in Westmead, a CT scan revealed little Alexandra was suffering from an illness and it was terminal.
“This cool little girl was being put through absolute hell in the sense that everything medical that no child should be exposed to,” Tahlia Martin, a friend of the family told this masthead.
The exact nature of Alexandra’s illness will not be published in respect to the family’s wishes, but it has been confirmed to be terminal.
“It’s a sort of touch-and-go situation, but we don’t know if she’s going to make it a year,” Tahlia said.
“We don’t know if she’s gonna make it 18 months.”
When asked to describe Alexandra, a little girl who has been a trooper through the multiple hospital visits, Tahlia said she was “very sassy”.
“She will tell you exactly what she wants like if she’s had a enough of people, because obviously the treatment is tiring for her, she gets tired quite quickly,” Tahlia said.
“She’s just this little girl that loves princesses, all her Barbies and she’s just so sweet and caring.
“As you can imagine any little girl would be, she loves hair and make up and all of her dresses.”
Which is why Tahlia and a few other co-workers of Hilda’s set up a GoFundMe for little Alexandra and her family.
The aim is to get Alexandra to Disneyland and give her the full Disney princess treatment.
“Hilda spoke of how Alexandra wants to go to Disneyland, and she wants to see Hawaii’s beautiful beaches,” Tahlia said.
“It obviously not just the holidaying, it’s the family photos and memories that Hilda can keep forever.
“And amendments to the house to make it a little bit more easier for Alexandra. They have quite a few stairs in the house and she’s finding it quite difficult to move around at the moment.”
The money will also go towards financially helping the family so that both of Alexandra’s parents can spend as much time with their little girl as possible.
At the time of writing, the fundraiser has reached $76,162.
What money that has been raised has blown the family away, with Tahlia sharing how grateful they have been to everyone who has donated.
“I don’t think any words are the correct words other than thank you,” she said.
“Thank you to everybody that has seen this story, just the ED (emergency department) alone raised over $40,000 so it just speaks volumes of who Hilda and her family are.”
