After a long journey, the Depuit family are still battling cancer.
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Due to a demanding treatment schedule, they’ve been living away from their Shepparton home for the past 10 weeks.
“The Shepparton community has been such a great support with helping us financially, physically and emotionally in our journey through another cancer battle, and we cannot thank them enough,” Mia’s father Ben Depuit said.
Mia Depuit’s family began grappling with the reality of her cancer diagnosis when she was just 12 months old.
The family lived in the Whitsundays at the time and were airlifted to Brisbane for Mia to receive immediate medical attention.
Within days of arriving at Queensland Children’s Hospital, Mia’s condition worsened to the point where the family were told to prepare for the worst.
Mia was too fragile for surgery, and the chemotherapy option remained uncertain as pathology had not yet identified the tumour.
The identification of the tumour, adrenocortical carcinoma, arrived the next day, and a chemotherapy treatment plan was initiated.
Mia’s response to chemotherapy allowed her to come off life support.
Some 1100km from home and without close family support, Ben and his wife, Nicole, decided to relocate to Victoria to be nearer to family.
Mia underwent significant open-heart surgery to remove tumour tissue from her heart and adrenal gland.
After surgery, Mia underwent more rounds of chemotherapy.
Although cancer treatment concluded, the medical journey continued due to other challenges stemming from the adrenal gland removal.
Mia was diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare genetic mutation associated with a heightened risk of developing cancer over one’s lifetime.
To the family’s shock, testing revealed that Mia’s dad, Ben, also carried this genetic mutation.
Since Ben’s diagnosis, he has been part of a genetic study with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Australia’s largest cancer research centre), involving regular scans and testing.
In his first scan, an area of concern was discovered in his brain on the left side.
Further detailed scans identified a slow-growing, low-grade tumour in the motor part of his brain.
Surgery is risky due to its awkward location in the brain.
In the past few years, life seemed to return to normal.
The family moved to Shepparton, where they became part of the community, and Mia began school.
They also welcomed a new addition, baby Maisy, born in April.
However, routine scans continued.
In June, Mia’s scan showed a concerning spot on her right tibia.
The biopsy confirmed osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Mia is in the midst of a second round of chemotherapy at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
She had surgery on Monday, October 23, involving the removal of the fibula from her left leg.
This was then grafted into her right leg to replace the tumour-affected tibia.
Both legs were cast after surgery, and recovery will be lengthy, especially considering her ongoing chemotherapy treatment.
She was in theatre for almost 10 hours.
Mr Depuit said on Tuesday, October 24, so far so good.
All the treating teams were happy with how surgery went and how well she was doing.
“Mia is so happy the “naughty bone” has been removed and is in high spirits,“ he said.
“She is comfortable and resting as much as possible.
“We are expecting to be in hospital for an extended stay now as she recovers.”
If you’d like to support the Depuit family, you can donate to their GoFundMe here: https://gofund.me/00522a52
Cadet journalist