At just two-and-a-half years old, Oli, a bubbly toddler who was obsessed with soccer, was mysteriously growing quieter by the day.
“We just put it down to a cold,” Justine Roberts, Oli’s mum, said.
“But then he just wasn’t getting any better.”
Driven by a mother’s fierce instinct, Ms Roberts took Oli back to the Busselton Hospital Emergency Department and delivered an ultimatum no doctor could ignore.
“I just said, ‘I’m not leaving until we sort this out,’” Ms Roberts said.
“He had a little red spot that wasn’t going away above his eyebrow.
“At first they were thinking maybe meningococcal, but then they took bloods.
“He was just so flat he wouldn’t even move, which is unusual for a kid to let doctors take blood.”
The test results pointed to a deadly reality, throwing the family into a frantic race against time.
“They got the blood results back and we were rushed to Bunbury with lights and sirens,” Ms Roberts said.
“We were told there that they suspect it’s Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
“From there we were flown to Perth to Princess Margaret Hospital. They confirmed it . . . and we basically didn’t leave hospital again after that.”
At the time, Justine had just given birth to her third child, who was barely four weeks old.
“They started chemo right away,” she said.
“And then we had to relocate our whole family to Perth for nine months because you had to be within 20 minutes from the hospital.”
For three and a half long years, Oli’s childhood was stolen by aggressive treatments, hair loss and strict isolation.
To protect his wiped-out immune system, the simple joys of being a kid were completely off-limits.
“He had to be quarantined, so we weren’t allowed to go to playgrounds or pools or fun parks or anything,” Ms Roberts said.
“It was three and a half years all up that he was on chemo.
“Once he got to the nine months, he was on oral chemo for a couple of years, and monthly we would go to the hospital for IV chemo.”
Through every hospital visit, Oli held onto a simple, magical dream — he wanted to see real snow.
“His one wish was to see the snow with his family,” his mum said.
“He wanted to have snowball fights whilst running around playing in the snow with us.”
Now a healthy, thriving 11-year-old, Oli’s long-awaited wish finally became reality, thanks to Make-A-Wish Australia and Telethon.
The Roberts family — mum, dad Brant and sisters Indiana, Willow, and Harper — packed their bags for Mount Hotham in Victoria.
“Oh my god, it was amazing. It was literally like a trip of a lifetime because none of us have seen the snow,” Ms Roberts said.
“We got there at night. It was quite a trek coming from Busselton, flying to Melbourne, and driving up the mountain.
“He was very excited. The kids were straight out into the snow doing snowball fights and making little snowmen. It was awesome.”
Even more awesome was the milestone Oli achieved on June 13 this year — five years since finishing his last treatment.
“He’s officially cleared now, so he’s officially cured,” Ms Roberts said.
“He’s definitely in remission and loving life, which is great.”
For Oli, a boy of few words who usually lets his big heart do the talking, the highlight of his trip was stepping onto a snowboard for the first time.
“He loved it — he picked it up so quickly, he was a pro in the end,” Ms Roberts said.
Since 1985, Make-A-Wish Australia has granted nearly 12,000 wishes across the country, giving families fractured by medical trauma a chance to heal together.
“He said he had the best time ever,” Ms Roberts said.
“We usually go on warm holidays, we chase the sun, so that was our first cold snow holiday.
“We all really want to go back. I’m still a bit depressed that we’re home.”
Telethon has been supporting the Make-a-Wish foundation since 2000 to help make kids like Oli’s dreams come true.
In the past three years alone, almost 100 wishes have been funded by Telethon — with its support helping fund 39 life-changing wishes for sick kids in WA in the past year alone.