Eleanor takes recovery in stride

ELEANOR Oakley is enjoying life back in Hobart after receiving treatment for a high-risk disease in the United States.

The four-year-old has battled neuroblastoma since 2018 and was categorised as high-risk after relapsing just after her third birthday in July 2019.

Her father Rob Oakley said the aggressive tumour quickly doubled in size, with a rare US treatment in Ohio the only cure for her rare relapse.

“New York quoted us $2.2m [for the surgery] and that was one of the worst moments of our lives,” he said.

“We got other quotes and it came out as $350,000.

“From that moment pretty much the whole of Australia it felt just jumped on our back and got us there, it was amazing.”

Mr Oakley said the public helped to raise funds for the treatment, with fellow Tasmania Fire Service staff offering their leave and donating their shifts to the firefighter and his family.

Eleanor’s mother Jacqui Oakley said treatment began in January after a rocky start.

A “faulty port” in the girl’s head meant she needed surgery to prepare the port for administering antibody treatment.

“She remained quite well between the doses,” Mrs Oakley said.

“We actually started to enjoy it over there to be able to travel a little bit.”

But the sudden onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic gave the family just one day to book their flights out of Ohio when treatment finished.

The family quarantined in an empty Melbourne apartment for two weeks while a taxi driver helped supply their groceries.

Mrs Oakley said full-body immunotherapy and chemotherapy resumed in Melbourne, but coronavirus cases emerging in the Royal Children’s Hospital kept the family on high alert.

She said the four rounds of treatment made Eleanor “so sick”, but she recovered and was able to fly back to Hobart in mid-July.

Mr Oakley said the family finished their Hobart quarantine on Eleanor’s fourth birthday.

He said she will remain at high-risk for five years, but said the family was proud of her continued resilience through treatments.

“We get so emotional about how she can turn out the way she has with so much trauma she’s gone through, she just takes it in her stride,” he said.

“We are still incredibly anxious about what lies ahead but we just hope now’s a new chapter of her life.”

Mrs Oakley said she hoped Eleanor would be able to start attending one hour a week of school in-person next term, giving her opportunities to socialise.