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You’re a close family and after the Fremantle win three weeks ago , you spoke after the match of how brave your sister Madeleine has been through her health battle? How is she going?
It’s been a really rough few weeks. She had her transplant a few weeks ago now and it’s been really tough as there’s been a few things happen that we didn’t foresee and have been really serious. At the moment it’s just a waiting game as we surround her with as much support as possible and I’m confident that she’ll come out the other end because she’s a strong girl and she’s got the right people looking after her.
Are you able to explain what illness Madeleine has?
She was originally diagnosed with a disease called aplastic anaemia. I think it changes along the spectrum of leukaemia, aplastic anaemia and other things. Essentially what happens is the bone marrow doesn’t work properly and can’t produce enough red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Madeleine had chemotherapy to totally kill her own marrow, and she had a donor from France donate marrow to her. That got flown over on the plane, arrived at the hospital and then they get that healthy marrow into her and hopefully it goes to the right place and starts producing cells. It’s incredible that this random person out there is a match and it is a significant process as to what the donors have to go through and to think someone out there has done that is amazing
Members of St Kilda Football Club visited our Frankston Donor Centre yesterday to support Nick Riewoldt and his sister Maddie, who has received over 100 units of blood. Around 20 members of the club donated, and we look forward to seeing the Saints again in a few weeks when the rest of the team is eligible to donate.
Keen to get into our lifesaving hot seat in the meantime? Book an appointment online http://bit.ly/1txSxqS
