Huntar's story

This story is about my son, Huntar. In 2016 when he was 9yo, he was diagnosed with NH Lymphoma. A whirlwind of medical terms, jargon for a family to comprehend. It was all very overwhelming. Injections, tests, scans, all of these became normal, along with blood and platelet transfusions, We knew very little about how transfusions worked, but when he was receiving them every week at one stage, and when we found out that the blood has a shelf life of just 35 days, our gratefulness for donors increased ten fold.

Huntar was a little apprehensive about seeing this blood from another human, enter his Hickman line for the first transfusion, but then every time we wondered who it came from and thanked them for what they did. It's amazing as parents to see that bag of blood hung up and watch it enter in the lines to your sick child. You can actually see the colour go back to their face and they become a little chirpier. The relief you get, of even a little corner turned.

As his mother, I donate blood and plasma now to support the need others may have. A huge thank you to all the donors. Without you, Huntar would have gotten a lot sicker. It helped his survival and also made one of his many treatments that little bit easier, knowing we had people giving there blood so it was there when he needed it.