Sports stars across three national codes have tangled with two young veteran fighters in Tarneit to raise money for this week’s Good Friday Appeal and The Royal Children’s Hospital.
Matilda and Western United skipper Chloe Logarzo, Geelong AFLW star Georgie Prespakis and NBL rising star Owen Foxwell had to be on their mettle when they traded ball skills and threw hoops with feisty Joshua Chalmers, 5, and Emily Cook, 10, at the appeal’s Charity Auction Home in Tarneit’s Alamora estate.
Joshua first underwent open-heart surgery at 17 hours old, with more at three months and his first 100 days of life in The Royal Children’s Hospital. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome meant the left side of heart didn’t develop properly, leaving him essentially with just half a heart. Joshua is staring down the barrel of more open-heart surgery in coming months, but things are shaping up well and Joshua’s parents Sharon and David are confident the medical magicians at The Royal Children’s will soon have their little boy on track.
Emily has been a patient at the Royal Children’s since she was young, receiving life-saving treatment for cancer in her brainstem.
Emily’s lesion is a rare type of brain tumour called a ganglioglioma. The location of the tumour is not only the most difficult part of the brain to operate on, it’s also the most dangerous as it controls everything her body does. Emily is likely going to have this tumour for the rest of her life.
This year’s Good Friday Appeal home, the 7-star Lily 352-D38 by Henley Homes, will go under the hammer on Good Friday at 2 pm in a no-reserve auction.
Link: www.gfacharityhouse.com.au
