Luck has moved through the lives of Sydney couple Mina and Rob Caterjian in a most capricious way. They struggled to conceive and suffered several miscarriages over eight years until they welcomed a brown-eyed daughter with a loving and curious personality. For 11 months, their lives felt full of happiness and good fortune, until fate turned again and they received the grave news their little girl, Ellie, had a rare and aggressive cancer. The doctors were despairing that there was nothing they could do when their luck changed again: Ellie was accepted into a new research program using DNA sequencing to develop treatment targeted to her cancer’s specific genetic mutation. It was still a long shot at a cure, but for Rob and Mina it was hope. The Zero Childhood Cancer Program had just opened and Ellie was among the first acutely sick Australian children to be included.
“Had Ellie been born a year prior, this wouldn’t have been available,” says Mina. “As she was leaving the ICU the doctor said, this is a miracle.”
Ellie was chosen for the ZERO pilot program of just 12 children – later expanded to 58 – to have her cancer analysed by a team of experts using the very latest technology. Sitting in a cafe in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood, Mina recounts how giving birth had felt like the end of their struggles, not realising what lay ahead.
“We thought, we can do anything because we finally have our child,” Mina says. “Then we noticed she wasn’t meeting her milestones. She was losing weight. I kept going back to the GP. We were told things like, ‘You’ve changed formula; she’s not used to it. She’s got reflux’.”
This story is from the April 2021 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2021 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Where to go in 2024
Who doesn't love fantasising about their next trip? We've gone for lesser-known locations, and whether you're seeking bright lights, striking natural scenery, serenity or excitement, here's where you're sure to find it.
Money matters with Effie
Didn’t reach your financial goals in 2023? While a new year won’t wipe away pressures like rising costs, there are a few things you can do now to refresh your money mojo in 2024.
Bright stars in a rugged land
The hot, dusty opal fields around Lightning Ridge in outback NSW have traditionally been a man's world. Now The Weekly meets the women who have been struck by opal fever.
The gift of life
Maureen Elliott had just months to live when she went on St Vincent's Hospital's transplant list. Thirty years on she's one of the longest living heart-lung transplant recipients in the world.
An uncaged heart
After more than two years in Iranian jails, Kylie Moore-Gilbert has forged a new life that's brimming with love, and a determination to help others who have been wrongfully imprisoned.
The woman behind The King
As Sofia Coppola's biopic Priscilla readies to hit screens, we look back at the early life and great love of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley.
Say hello to the Cockatoo cake
When we put a call-out to our readers for their best children's cakes we were inundated with recipes, and this clever cockatoo was ahead of the flock.
The French revolution
Dawn French quit her sketch show because she felt so ugly. Now the \"roly-poly comedian\" wants us all to stop fretting about our faults. She talks body image, surviving the 1980s and owning her mistakes.
Trump's women
Will it be the jailhouse or the White House for Donald Trump this year? The women in his life could make all the difference.
Can you buy a good night's sleep?
Forty per cent of Australians have trouble sleeping, and the market has responded with a mind-boggling array of sleep aids. But do any of them actually work? The Weekly goes in search of slumber.