Little Connor Takes Up The Fight Against The Monster
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Connor Hourigan |
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Connor - ready to fight the monster |
The Child Cancer Foundation‘s Appeal Week takes place between March 27th and April 2nd 2006 and little Connor of Carterton has been chosen as the “Face of the Appeal”. She will star in the Foundation’s “Fight the Monster” campaign to help raise money in support all the children and families in New Zealand who have had a similar experience to her own.
Connor takes baton off last year’s Face of the Appeal, Lexi Primrose, whose dancing touched the hearts of the New Zealand public and helped the Foundation raise in excess of $800,000.
Today, four-year-old Connor is full of life, although her fight against the monster is not over yet with regular check ups and visits to the hospital.
Connor’s battle against childhood cancer started in 2004. As a heavily pregnant Rachel Hourigan bathed a two-year old Connor she didn’t think this simple task would lead to a diagnosis that would take her family on an arduous and traumatic journey.
“At the end of her bath Connor jumped out and immediately shrieked in pain. She refused to stand up or walk and was breathing heavily, almost gasping, and appeared to be in a lot of pain,” says Rachel.
A seemingly harmless fall at play centre was the cause of Connor’s discomfort and Rachel booked a doctor’s appointment to confirm a suspected cracked rib. How wrong she was – Connor had cancer.
An ultrasound detected a tumour on her kidney and it would be another three weeks of testing and removal of the kidney before the final diagnosis that Connor had a Wilms Tumour. Looking back, says Rachel, “those three weeks felt like a lifetime…not to mention the weeks of treatment that followed.”
Adding to an already stressful situation Rachel and Dennis Hourigan were preparing for the imminent birth of their third child when Connor first went into hospital.
“Due to the stress my baby was late but I was actually in labour when I learned that Connor had a tumour wrapped around her kidney and it would need to be removed. We were trying to welcome Hunter into the world while also trying to support our little girl. It was a very stressful time.”
Following diagnosis, Connor underwent intensive treatment for 10 weeks, followed by a further five months of treatment on a less frequent basis. The treatment itself brought challenges of its own. Every treatment meant an hour and a half drive from Carterton through the Rimatakas to Wellington without Connor’s dad, Dennis, who stayed behind to work. We were really grateful to Dennis’ boss at Mobil for giving him the three weeks off during diagnosis but eventually life had to go on and Dennis had to go back to work to support our family.
Rachel says that although they grew as a family during this time the experience turned their world upside down. “Without the support of family and The Child Cancer Foundation an exhausting and stressful time would have been even more difficult.”
The Foundation helped the Hourigan family enormously throughout their ordeal. ”They were there from the outset, right from diagnosis, providing us with information, petrol vouchers, phone cards, vouchers for the canteen at the hospital and many practical things that we were too distracted to think about,” says Rachel.
While every child’s experience with cancer is different, the Child Cancer Foundation offers help to all families living in New Zealand that face childhood cancer. The Foundation believes no child or their family living with cancer should ever be alone. As important as the financial assistance was the emotional support offered by their Family Support Coordinator who was readily available to the family.
“Our Family Support Coordinator Margaret Alve was an amazing support. She would constantly pop her head in and chat to us, bringing the children chocolate biscuits to cheer them up a little. We got to know her quite well and would use the Family Place, a special drop in centre run by the Foundation, whenever we were in Wellington.
“Perhaps one of the most special things Margaret did for us was to write letters and send packages to Connor’s brother Dan. These packages helped Dan feel important in his own right, not solely just because of what Connor was going through. They allowed Dan his own experience of what we were all going through as a family.”
Connor is now in remission and continues to do well. She is a bubbly pre-schooler who loves going for bike rides, family picnics and feeding her favourite ponies. The charity’s young Ambassador will appear on television and make media appearances on behalf of children with cancer and their families in New Zealand.
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