A family has been given the means to look after their two-year-old daughter with cancer thanks to the good will of the community.

Zara Dykstra was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumour in the lower part of the brain, on December 9.

A givealittle page was started, which as of Tuesday had raised $15,114, and a fundraising golf tournament at the Foxton Golf Club collected about $37,000.

Mother Amanda Dykstra said the fundraiser showed the sheer number of people standing behind them, which gave them a boost to stand strong and support Zara.

READ MORE: Cancer patient rounds off North Island leg of walk from Cape Reinga to Bluff Thomas had a rare brain cancer and no good options. Then he joined a clinical trial Cancer survivors and family members celebrate life and loss at Relay for Life fundraiser

She said it was hard because all her and her husband Daniel Dykstra could do, was be there to support Zara’s emotional needs through the trauma of treatment

The money from the community gave them the financial means to be there and took away the pressure of bills.

“The community response has been amazing; we are so proud to be Foxton locals”.

Zara had just finished her second round of chemotherapy treatment. She had one more cycle to go before a scan would assess her progress against treating the cancer, with two more rounds and radiotherapy likely after that.

The goal was for treatment to be finished and for the family to be back at home in six months, if all went to plan.

She was diagnosed after a suspected ear infection was found to be a large brain tumour.

“Then they flew us to starship in the middle of the night,” Amanda Dykstra said.

Zara was put in the neurological high dependency unit because the tumour was so big she was considered at high risk of seizures.

Four days later she had neurosurgery.

“It was terrifying, but she came out really, really well.”

The family had been in Auckland for nine weeks and were staying at the Ronald McDonald House, which was on hospital grounds.

Amanda Dykstra said the treatment was relentless.

“We had no understanding of how intense cancer treatment could be.”

Zara has over 300 beads on her necklace, that represent all hospital-related treatment such as procedures, tests, surgeries and dressing changes.

Zara came home on Thursday for the first time since going to Starship. In between unplanned trips to Palmerston North hospital, she made it to the golf greens for a lap of the grounds.

Zara’s dad Daniel Dykstra used to take Zara down to the golf course on a Saturday.

She would sit with club members, eat chippies and play with little golf clubs on the practice greens.

Daniel Dykstra said he was proud of his friends from Foxton, who had gone out of their way to help.

“It’s a pretty good effort from the boys.”

He said it was nice to see Zara acting like a normal child again.

“She is doing well at the moment. [She] gets better and better by the day.”

Golf Club director of promotions Mark Hofman said about 230 people turned up to their fundraiser, with 170 competing in the golf tournament.

“The community’s support was overwhelming to be honest. It was emotional.”

Hofman was Daniel Dykstra’s golfing partner, and insisted on raising some money to help.

“It was fantastic. When we first started, we thought about $500 to help them out. It just grew naturally over the four weeks.”

Dozens of prizes were donated including a 50cc Yamaha motorbike, a signed Emirates Team NZ shirt, a signed Hurricanes Jersey and firewood.

People can donate to the family here .

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A resilient 105-year-old woman thinks there’s one special homemade remedy that helped her beat the coronavirus: gin-soaked raisins .

Lucia DeClerck, the oldest resident of her South Jersey nursing home, found out she had contracted Covid-19 on her 105th birthday in January. She is one of 62 residents to have contracted the virus, four of whom died, and got the positive test after receiving her second dose of the vaccine.

“We were very concerned,” her son Phillip Laws told the New York Times about receiving the news. “But she’s got a tenacity that is unbelievable. And she’s got that rosary – all the time.”’

DeClerck credits her old age to prayer and healthy eating, but told the Times her specific tradition of eating gin-soaked raisins each morning helped her in the battle against Covid. After being diagnosed, she was quarantined and showed a few symptoms, but returned to her room within two weeks.

READ MORE: Woman wants more awareness of brain condition on the rise due to Covid-19 How the Queen used her profile to champion the new polio vaccine in 1957 At 106, early Covid-19 vaccine recipient in Brazil still remembers Spanish flu Covid-19: World’s second-oldest person survives coronavirus at age 116

“Fill a jar,” she explained. “Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days.”

Gin-soaked raisins are just one of DeClerck’s rituals, which also include drinking aloe juice and brushing her teeth with baking soda.

“We would just think, ‘Grandma, what are you doing? You’re crazy,’” her 53-year-old granddaughter Shawn Laws O’Neil said. “Now the laugh is on us. She has beaten everything that’s come her way.”

This isn’t the 105-year-old’s first pandemic, either. After being born in Hawaii in 1916, DeClerck survived the Spanish flu, multiple wars, as well as the death of three husbands and one of her sons.

“She is just the epitome of perseverance,” O’Neil said. “Her mind is so sharp. She will remember things when I was a kid that I don’t even remember.”

DeClerck is one of the oldest people to have beaten the virus. Her large family of kids, grandkids, and great grandkids is now bestowing a new title on their Grandma Lucia: “The 105-year-old badass who kicked Covid.”

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DEAR DEIDRE: I AM with the love of my life, who I met three years ago. I am 54 and he is 51.

The one fly in the ointment is his 14-year-old daughter. I like her, but she is going down a worrying path, smoking, drinking, taking drugs and staying out late.

She asks her mum if she can stay here because her dad is a soft-touch. When she is here, she stays out all night and he doesn’t say a word.

She has now asked for a key so she can drop in as she pleases. She already turns up at all hours but at least she has to knock on the door.

Her mum doesn’t want her to have a key but her dad never says no. I don’t want to come between my fiancé and his daughter but don’t my feelings count?

DEIDRE SAYS: Your boyfriend needs to talk to his ex and agree on some boundaries for their daughter – one of which should be returning home by an agreed time.

They need to present a united front, otherwise she will keep playing them off against each other – ultimately to her detriment.

Perhaps your ex feels guilty about the relationship break-up with his ex and so gives in to his daughter.

Suggest they speak to Family Lives, which will understand the issues here ( familylives.org.uk , 0808 800 2222).

NEXT IN DEAR DEIDRE My wife asked me to lie to her lover’s missus about their sex sessions

READ DEIDRE’S PHOTO CASEBOOK Ron can’t get a doctor’s appointment for his gout due to Covid

GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

A 61-year-old woman Mrs. Stella Omoigui, has demanded N50million compensation for her 11year- old-son, Master Osasu Omoigui who was allegedly hit by a stray bullet on his genital during #EndSARS protest.

Mrs. Omoigui, a petty trader yesterday in Benin,  told the Edo State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for victims of SARS and related abuses that her 11year son was hit by stray bullets from the police officers who were dispersing the #EndSARS protesters when running an errand for her.

She added that the incident happened along Old road, Sapele Road, Benin City, when he asked the said Osasu, a primary three pupil of Maria Christian Academy to go and give his father ripe plantain.

She said her son was later treated and discharged from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH

She said ever since the incident, she has been spending her little resources on him.

She said the little Osasu can only pass out urine through a fixed pipe on his abdomen, a situation that has forced him to always be on wrappers instead of trousers.

She said the condition has also forced him from going to school.

She however pleaded with the panel to grant her son the sum of N50 million as compensation for the pains being suffered by him and also take care of his medical bills and that the panel should do all in its power to see that he could have his life back.

On the part of little Osasu, he said he would like to be a medical doctor when he grows up.

“I want to be a medical doctor by the time I grow up and finished my education, please, the government and every spirited individual should help me”, he said.

Being touched by the condition of the 11-year- old Osasu, chairman, Judicial Panel of Inquiry, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe (rtd) said the child’s condition must be treated with prompt attention.

“I have a medical doctor in my team, looking at the young man, is about 11 years old, he is unable to dress properly like normal human being, we found him to be wrapped in wrappers and the medical doctor in my team, examined him and found that he is badly damaged in his genital region and we have reviewed that this calls for an emergency intervention.

“We will do the necessary things that will be required of us just like the state government has always done, matters of this nature be treated promptly. If you recall, we have similar matters of about two of them, deaf and dumb, more than that and promptly, the state government intervened.

“They did not even wait for us to make our final recommendations. So, I sure with this, look at the condition of the boy, so pathetic, and it is not the police, it is a stray bullet.

“It is one of those things, the consequences of that protest, we can’t really lay our hands on anybody but we will try our best to make the adequate recommendations.

“So, we have reviewed instantly, and we have reviewed, that all of us, we have the combined view that it is meritorious, deserving compensation, he needs urgent medical attention. So, that is our stance”, she said.

Justice Ehigiamusoe also led panel members to raise money for him and which was immediately given to him.

Vanguard News Nigeria