‘I’M SO PROUD OF MY BRAVE GIRL’
Little Anabela got her dream den – thanks to the Starlight team
After seeing her endure 500 hospitalisations before her seventh birthday, Sarah Pearce was determined to give her little girl reason to smile again. That wish came true last November when Anabela Kleyn was gifted a bespoke cubby house by The Starlight Foundation.
“It was just magical,” says Sarah, recalling Anabela’s delight when the bubbly girl first saw her dream den.
It was especially poignant given all Anabela has been through. As a newborn she was diagnosed with hemifacial microsomia, a congenital condition causing one side of her face to be underdeveloped. Anabela has also had multiple spinal conditions, difficulties swallowing and hearing loss.
Her birth was touch and go. “They had to resuscitate her several times,” says Sarah, who welcomed her by emergency C-section on December 4, 2013 at Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital, NSW. “But Anabela was alive and breathing – that’s all I focused on.”
Rushed to Sydney’s Randwick Hospital, Anabela had her first life-saving surgery to correct her oesophagus when she was just 48 hours old. She spent 58 days there for various surgeries.
“It was really confronting,” the 39-year-old single mum tells Woman’s Day. “Watching her in such life-threatening situations was emotionally draining. It was hell.”
But even on her darkest days Anabela, seven, still manages to smile. Often it’s thanks to the Captain Starlight volunteers she calls her “best friends”.
“When you’re in the hospital alone, to have somebody give your child a smile while they’re in a really scary daunting environment... it means so much,” says Sarah. “They are happy and positive and so she is happy and positive.”
Inspired by Anabela’s favourite TV show The Dengineers, which shows children building their dream dens, Sarah nominated her daughter for a Starlight wish.
After three months of hard work the Starlight team – and Captains – revealed Anabela’s rainbow and princess unicornthemed house.
The backyard of the mum and daughter’s Rosemeadow, Sydney, home was adorned with a red carpet and glitter canons for the big unveiling. Sarah says she’ll never forget the awe on Anabela’s face.
“She’s gone through so much and she’s still so positive, to see the excitement, it was such an amazing experience.”
Sarah has one more wish for Anabela. “She wants to be a performer,” she says. “I really hope she gets to live that out.” May 7 is Starlight Day, which aims to raise $650,000 to help bring happiness to sick kids and teens across Australia. Visit starlightday.org.au to donate.