Children's Cancer Institute

Logan had just turned four when a tumour was found in his brain. It was during the ups and downs that followed that his true nature shone through, and Logan showed all those who knew him why quality matters more than quantity.

Before diagnosis

Logan was born in country New South Wales, where he lived on a farm with his family: Mum Sarah, Dad Rob, and big sister Millie. Sarah describes him as ‘a typical farm kid’ - a little boy who was obsessed with motorbikes and tractors and big machinery. When he wasn’t engrossed in farm machinery brochures, he loved to go out on the land with his father in the ute or on the bike.

Symptoms

For the 12 months before Logan turned four, he suffered multiple middle ear infections and always seemed to be sick. After having his adenoids out, Logan began to experience bad headaches and vomiting, leading Sarah to wonder if he had a sinus infection. She took him to the nearest hospital, where a doctor suggested it could be meningitis and recommended taking Logan to a larger hospital in Armidale.

We just knew that there had to be something else going on."

- Sarah, Logan's mum

Diagnosis

A CT scan at the hospital showed that there was fluid on Logan’s brain, but with no MRI machine available, Logan needed to be airlifted to Newcastle for further investigation. It was here that a tumour the size of a mandarin was found in his brain. After a seven-hour operation, there was a long wait for the pathology results: Logan had medulloblastoma.

‘I knew of leukaemia in kids, but I wasn’t aware of anything else,’ says Sarah. ‘So, when Logan got brain cancer, I was like… wow.’

Treatment

After 41 days in hospital, during which time Logan had another two surgeries, plans were made to travel to Sydney for radiation therapy. But on the day of their 10th wedding anniversary, Sarah and Rob found out that Logan would need the highest grade of radiation, which would leave him severely brain damaged. They had to make a decision: try radiation therapy in the hope it would save his life, or restrict his treatment to chemotherapy.

We were told we had to choose whether we wanted life, or quality of life."

- Sarah, Logan's mum

Logan had nine rounds of chemotherapy over the next nine months. On the last week of each month, if he was well enough, he could go home to the farm for a week before returning to hospital for more treatment. Sarah says it was during this time that Logan’s true nature really shone through, and she saw him for who he truly was: a happy, cheeky kid who was full of life.

I didn’t realise until he was on chemo that he was actually quite agile. And once the tumour was out, his speech just came along… it was amazing how quickly it came."

- Sarah, Logan's mum

The final chapter

After the first few rounds of chemotherapy, it appeared that progress was being made. But then Logan’s headaches and vomiting reappeared. One weekend, Logan became unresponsive then had a series of violent seizures. An MRI scan revealed that the cancer had spread significantly in Logan’s brain and down his spine. There was nothing more that could be done. After Logan’s extended family had been given an opportunity to visit, Sarah and Rob said their final goodbyes and waited as their little boy slipped away.

Sarah says that even though Logan’s final months were traumatic, she feels very grateful for that time. ‘Despite all the treatment, despite everything he went through, by having that cancer diagnosis we really lived in the moment.’

I’ll be forever grateful for those nine months, because we got to make some beautiful memories."

- Sarah, Logan's mum

A mother's plea

During Logan’s ordeal, Sarah was shocked to discover how damaging current treatments can be for children. ‘To be told that in order to survive you need to be severely brain-damaged… it just seems barbaric,’ she says. ‘And for one of the chemos that he was on, he had to have hearing tests done beforehand because there was a 40 percent chance he would lose his hearing. Cancer is bad enough on its own, let alone all this other stuff that comes as a result of trying to survive.’

‘These kids need a chance. It wasn’t Logan’s fault or anyone else’s that this happened - I just wish he had more of a fighting chance.’