Would you like to support a charity fun run?

Submitted: Tuesday, Jun 22, 2010 at 03:25

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Noosa Fox

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Grandpa with a happy Callum early April 2010
My daughter in-law; Tanya is the BOG bookkeeper and on the 29th April this year after taking her 13 month old son to the doctor because he was a bit miserable and was losing his balance some of the time she was then sent to the Frankston Hospital where doctors did a CT Scan and found that he had a brain tumour.
Since that time he has had a number of operations and is presently on his second round of Chemotherapy.
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Grandma with Callum after 6 hour brain surgery end April

A friend of my son Brendan and his wife Tanya has organised a number of their friends to join in the “RUN MELBOURNE that is presented by The Age Newspaper on the 18th of July 2010” where the runners raise money for various charities. Brendan & Tanya have chosen the “Murdoch Children’s Research Institute” as their charity and the group has entered the team section as “TEAM CALLUM.” The “Murdoch Children’s Research Institute” amongst other things do research into Brain Tumours and that is why they have been chosen.
To date we have had a surprising amount of support and it has lifted Tanya and Brendan’s spirits knowing that they have so much support from their friends and the BOG members who have already made a donation.

As many of you would not be aware of this I just wanted to bring it to your attention and if you would like to make a donation to “Murdoch Children’s Research Institute” you could sponsor one of the runners at http://runmelbourne.everydayhero.com.au/team_callum .
Link to TEAM CALLUM sponsor page

The family and the BOG Committee do not receive anything from this, apart from the knowledge of your support.

Brian Fox
BOG Secretary

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Reply By: CD & JW - Friday, Jun 25, 2010 at 22:07

Friday, Jun 25, 2010 at 22:07

WONDERFUL

Looks like Team Callum will break their target of $10,000.

I have been checking the website every few days and today I see support has reached over the $9000 and still plenty of time left to have more donations added before 18th July, so they may even have the pleasure of raising the Target.

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Follow Up By: Noosa Fox - Saturday, Jun 26, 2010 at 02:17

Saturday, Jun 26, 2010 at 02:17

Thank you very much for your donation. They are checking the web site several times each day and I know that it is lifting their spirits seeing how many people are supporting them.
The original target was $5000, then Sarah increased that to $10,000 when they passed the $5,000 mark so it looks like she will have to increase it again.

With the help of people like the BOG members they may even get to be the top fund raisers for the run.

All the money that is donated to TEAM CALLUM in the Run Melbourne, presented by The Age is going to the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Murdoch Children's Research Institute is the largest and most prestigious child health research institute in Australia. Our team of over 1000 researchers conducts world class research into conditions such as mental health, heart disease, obesity, allergies, diabetes and premature birth to help kids live happier, healthier lives.

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This was taken today after we bathed him.

At the present time he getting towards the end of his second round of Chemotherapy and will probably be allowed to leave hospital on Sunday but they cannot return home as that is too far from the hospital to be able return quickly. They have been told that it will be OK to stay in Melbourne because when young children start to go down hill after Chemotherapy they do so quickly and without treatment could die within an hour.

The 4 year old boy in the same ward has Leukaemia and being in the oncology or Neurology wards opens up a whole new world of extremely sick children that most of us never know about. It has certainly been an education to our family.

Brian

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Reply By: bindi - Saturday, Jun 26, 2010 at 01:43

Saturday, Jun 26, 2010 at 01:43

I see Brendan Fox has a come in favourite for sponsorship .
Well done Guys.

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Follow Up By: CD & JW - Sunday, Jun 27, 2010 at 04:44

Sunday, Jun 27, 2010 at 04:44

6.30pm Saturday 26/6 and the total is $10,408.70 :)

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Follow Up By: CD & JW - Thursday, Jul 01, 2010 at 22:19

Thursday, Jul 01, 2010 at 22:19

Lunchtime 1st July
total: $13,433.70

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Follow Up By: CD & JW - Monday, Jul 05, 2010 at 01:46

Monday, Jul 05, 2010 at 01:46

Team Callum continues to grow its total - now listed as the top fundaiser of the teams

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Reply By: Noosa Fox - Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 at 07:53

Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 at 07:53

Margaret & I along with the rest of the family would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far.
The team has now raised just over $17,000 and there is just 1 week left before the charity run on 18th July.

Callum was allowed home last week on the Tuesday evening after he had received both whole blood and Platelet transfusions and was expecting to be at home for about a week but the following day he had to be rushed back to the hospital by ambulance as his temperature rose rapidly as a fever set in. He then spent the next week in hospital and received several more transfusions and was extremely sick when his temperature peeked at just under 40C.
He managed to have Wednesday and Thursday at home this week and has now returned to hospital today where he is being hydrated in preparation for his 3rd round of Chemotherapy to start tomorrow.
In about 3 weeks time we should know what progress has been made when he has another MRI.
The 4 year old boy that shared a room with Callum 2 weeks ago was undergoing treatment for Leukaemia and required 9 injections that cost $30,000 each. We are indeed living in the lucky country to have this service available to everyone of us.

If anyone who is reading this is healthy and able to give blood could we just ask you to consider becoming a regular blood donor.

When something like this affects a family and you spend a lot of time in a Children's Hospital and see how low they can get with no energy and just lay on a cot or bed unable to move, and then a short time after receiving a blood transfusion they are ready to get up and play it really hits home what a great Red Cross Blood Service that we have in Australia.
SO PLEASE CONSIDER BECOMING OR RETURNING TO BEING A BLOOD DONOR IF YOU ARE ABLE TO.

Another one of our members is also currently undergoing treatment for a bowel cancer and he had something like 14 blood donations recently to keep him going.

Finally is you haven't already done so and would like to support the Murdoch Children's Research Institute you can do so with a tax deductible donation athttp://runmelbourne.everydayhero.com.au/team_callum Murdoch Institute Donation site

Brian & Margaret

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Follow Up By: CD & JW - Saturday, Jul 17, 2010 at 04:52

Saturday, Jul 17, 2010 at 04:52

WOW The run is Sunday and Team Callum are highest fundraisers by a significant margin.

All the best to all of the runners

Not forgetting Callum.
Do trust he is not too knocked about by the treatments and you see improvement soon.

CD&JW

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Follow Up By: Noosa Fox - Saturday, Jul 17, 2010 at 06:06

Saturday, Jul 17, 2010 at 06:06

Callum has had some pretty bad periods where his temperature rose to 39.7 but most of the time he has handled the treatment so far very well.
He has had numerous Blood and Platelet transfusions and when he has some new blood he goes from no energy to wanting to get out of bed and go walking within an hour.

When they started the team to raise money they thought that maybe they might get $2000 to $3000 and none of can believe that it is now over $27,000.

We would all like to thank all the members from this forum who have donated and it is still open if someone else wishes to.

Could I also remind people to return to or start being a Blood Donor if you are able to because it really does make a lot of difference to lots of very sick children.

One of your relatives may need blood soon. We always thought that it would happen to someone else and not our family because we were all healthy until this.

Callum completes his 3rd round of Chemotherapy tomorrow and we are hopeful that we will be able to take him to the Melbourne Run on Sunday and maybe push him around the 5km course in his pram. If not we hope to have him at the Team Callum marquee at Federation Square.

Brian

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Reply By: CD & JW - Monday, Jul 19, 2010 at 02:01

Monday, Jul 19, 2010 at 02:01

How did you all go...

Forcaste was for wind which might have made it a cool run/walk.

Financially I see the Total raised by Team Callum got to over $30,000

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Follow Up By: Noosa Fox - Monday, Jul 19, 2010 at 03:47

Monday, Jul 19, 2010 at 03:47

With the weather in Melbourne being a lot cooler than Noosa we have been sleeping in more and not doing a lot of walking, especially fast walking and after today with some walking and some jogging both Margaret and I can feel a few muscles that we don't normally feel. It took us nearly 40 minutes for the 5 Km walk/run but we did overtake a lot of people half our age.

Brendan, our son did the 10km run in 52 minutes so you can see he is a lot fitter than we are.

Callum came out of hospital yesterday morning and Tanya brought him up to the marquee at about 10 O'clock so he was there to greet the runners from both the 10km and 5 km runs.

The Team callum group apparently had the largest number of runners, and also to date have by far the highest cash total. The donation website is open for another month so more people may still donate.
For having the biggest team number we also receive $1,000 from the organisers and so long as we retain the highest money raiser status we will receive another $1,000.

We have had the Professor in charge of the Murdoch Research Institute contact the family to say thank you and he asked that we pass on our thanks to everyone who donated.

Brendan & Tanya really appreciated the support that they have received and continue to receive in these trying times.

Brian & Margaret

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