Charli’s challenges underpin first NSW Golf Day of 2025
2025-03-19
An amazing day was had last Friday at St Michael's Golf Club for our first NSW Golf Day of 2025.
25 teams joined us on the course driven by the desire to change childhood cancer. Both return visitors and new teams took on 18 holes, as well as the Nearest to the Pin, Longest Drive and Hole in One competitions.
At the conclusion of the day's play, The Kids’ Cancer Project CEO hosted a Q & A with Pat McCabe, whose daughter Charli was diagnosed with high-risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).
Charli was a “perfectly happy, healthy two-year-old child, going about her life, just a little bit clingy for a couple of days” Pat recalls.
After deciding to take Charli to the Emergency Department, Pat and Tammy were advised Charli was sick and taken to Sydney Children's Hospital where Charli was formally diagnosed. Over the next 13 months, Charli and her family would spend near 180 nights in hospital.
“It’s just a lot, on so many different fronts, all the information, trying to work out what happens now, trying to balance life with two kids in kindergarten, a job in Canberra, commuting between home and the hospital in Sydney.
“The first thing they administer is really high doses of steroids and to see your child puff up and just not be themselves, it’s a shock and very scary on so many different fronts.”
After a number of treatment rounds when Charli wasn’t responding well, the McCabe’s were connected to the ZERO Childhood Cancer program, which The Kids' Cancer Project initially funded over a decade ago.
“They (the oncology team) found out relatively quickly that she had certain genetic markers on her leukaemia cells which meant she was never going to respond well to chemotherapy. Without that, five years ago, the process would have been just meant more and more chemo, finish the round, relapse, then go through more cycles of chemo, so she was extremely fortunate from that perspective.”
Pat says that new, less harmful treatments are enabling kids like Charli to live their lives like normal children, as opposed to being subjected to consistent rounds of chemotherapy.
“The immunotherapies now available are just incredible. A new drug called blinatumomab targets the specific protein in the leukaemia cells, and it meant that Charli returned to her life, wearing a backpack 24/7 for 3 months, as a happy normal kid again, and could continue treatment without the harsh side effects of chemo. It also meant Charli could undergo a bone marrow transplant fairly quickly.
Pat shared the challenging experience around Charli’s bone marrow transplant starting with 2 weeks of very heavy chemo, other drugs, followed by isolation for about 3 months.
“It’s a really hard experience in itself, my wife and Charli didn’t see our twins for 3 months, I would drive over and walk them to school, outside, while my parents looked after them for that time.
"She’s doing really well now. She’s got all her lines out so she can swim now and does ballet, it’s pretty wild to see. We’re extremely thankful and hopeful for her future.”
After hearing Pat & Charli’s story, there was a groundswell of guest generosity in the Live Auction and Last Donor Standing activation.
We'd like to thank each of our guests for attending, with special mention to event sponsors SHARP EIT, TomKat Roofing, RONDO and SWMM; Hole Sponsors EnPerSo, Business Growth Finance, Grandstand Events and WOTSO; Print Sponsor, Nova Printworx and Media Partner, Ian Pritchard Cinematography, for their unwavering support of our dream - for no child to die from cancer.