WHEN a child in the City of Kingston gets sick they will most likely be treated at Monash Children’s Hospital, a place many families are unaware even exists.
However, Paterson Lakes mother Vanessa Miranda knows this special part of Monash Medical Centre too well.
Her daughter Taylah was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 14 at the end of 2014, and Vanessa will always be grateful for the life saving care and treatment at Monash Children’s Hospital.
Vanessa cannot forget the day she found out Taylah had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
“We entered a new world that day. A world where before we thought childhood cancer happened to other families, not ours,” Vanessa said.
Emerging from other side of treatments, having been through some hellish days in the Intensive Care Unit, Taylah is doing well and has even kept up with her lessons at Haileybury College in Keysborough.
With her amazing courage and determination, Taylah continues to navigate the trials of cancer with such a positive spirit and now wishes to become a paediatric oncologist.
With Taylah’s future looking bright, Vanessa has turned her appreciation into action to help Monash raise funds for a new purpose-built children’s hospital that will open next to Monash Medical Centre next year.
“Monash Hospital was built many years ago but was purpose built for adults, not children. The walls are white, the play areas are tiny and there is little comfort for our sick children,” Vanessa said. “The new hospital building is focused on giving children and their families a wonderful assortment of things that will make their stay and treatment a little less confronting than it is. With areas for animals, a lounge for parents, and counselling spaces, the environment will be designed to comfort families.”
Vanessa is organising ‘The Biggest Playdate’ with the first one being held, appropriately, on International Children’s Day on Saturday 28 May at the Silly Seahorse Play Centre in Chelsea Heights. Extended to include the surrounding land around the centre, this wonderland of children’s activities will include superheroes, Disney princesses, rides, mini golf, balloons, face painting, farm animals and more.
Great coffee, ice creams, fairy floss, popcorn, and BBQ will also be available and all funds will go towards the children’s cancer centre in the new hospital.
- The Biggest Playdate will take place at Silly Seahorse Play Centre, 2/213-225 Wells Rd, Chelsea Heights on Saturday 28 May, 10am-3pm.
See ‘The Biggest Playdate’ on Facebook or call the play centre on 9776 3100 for further information.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 11 May 2016