Fundraising

Well we have finished this years fundraising and I have pictures galore to attach -

Firstly the raffles & grandfinal day - we have many friends & family who have blessed us with their help and support. Donna arranged t-shirts for these fundraisers, and they are cute - we have below Lynne & Gabrielle modelling them at a raffle day ....

The t-shirt has a picture of a teddy bear with writing that says - I am helping HARRISON DRAPER with his fight against ADA-SCID.

The raffles were quite a success - and the Grandfinal day raised $30,000 in profit - not a bad days work really!!

The golf day was next on Monday 8th October raising about $10,000 and this will likely become an annual event.Brett Kenny was the guest speaker and Doug Keen of the NRL development MC'd. We were lucky enough to have local business sponsorship for this day..We had about 100 players with a buffet lunch following the golfing.





Finally the benefit night at Gosford Racecourse. We had a lovely view of the floodlit racecourse... 170 guests, 3 course meal, flowing beer & wine and a great night.
Guest speaker Stuart Dickinson of the Australian Rugby Union - he is a ref, and recently is back from the World Cup. Doug Keen MC'd again and was also part auctioneer with Ashley Knight a local real estate agent.

David Proust did a fantastic comedy act warming up the crowd for the auctions.
Rather than uploading hundreds of pics though I did a video of the night.....


We have truly been blessed by the help & support of friends, family and business alike and without this support our success in these events would not have happened.

THANK YOU...... :)
next post will be an update on Harrison's bone marrow transplant progress - we are just waiting on some test results.

Autopilot

Its been a while between posts. I've been living life on the freeway in autopilot mode. I think the car drives itself to the hospital now - and I can do it sleeping - or in a major traffic jam when trucks collide with cars and you have to leave 2 hours earlier than expected, just to get there in time!!

Harrison has had quite a few visits etc to the hospital. So in order to bring things up to date I will list what we've been up to - then I will add pics next time!

Events: Golf Day on 8th October was a great success - Brett Kenny was the guest speaker for the day. Lots of pics from this to add later

Benefit Night at Gosford Racecourse - 10th November was a massive night. I got to go to this one too - and I can honestly say we had a fantastic night. We had Stuart Dickinson from the ARU Referee's guest speak, a fantastic guy called David Proust do a comedy act and Doug Keen from the Rugby League - Referee's development officer as MC. Ashley Knight a local real estate agent helped with the auction. Also lots of pics to come!!

Hospital stuff:
Last Intragam was 26th October - next one due 23rd November at Gosford Hospital - which will also be the next set of blood tests to see how things r going.

*31st October - Operation on abscess at Westmead Children's hospital - was ok but they could not find where the abscess started so it may reform - so far so good though - it seems to be healing .
*6th November - Eye Dr Rowe review. Retinitis is now confirmed with a minor change in the retina since Dr Rowe saw Harrison on the ward in July. He is short sighted so will need glasses at some stage, and the nystagmus continues but is intermittent. Review now set for 9 months time unless he has a dramatic change before then.
*9th November - Hearing test @ Westmead under sedation. Harrison did ok with this but they couldn't test full range. No change with some hearing loss just outside normal ranges , so hopefully this won't change anymore and he'll go on to lead a pretty normal life hearing wise! 3 monthly reviews will continue though to be sure!! ( Did that sound Irish? - Sorry!!! )
*13th November - review from surgery - all ok & seems to be healing - only need to see Dr Harvey again if things don't heal properly.
*16th November - review with BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) team - I am excited about this one - definitely want to know how things R tracking.. Will keep you all posted too.. :)

So things are steady at the moment - we are watching his ears as they are both a little red, so hopefully no infection occurs. & I can have a little rest from planning events. Although I had such a good time the other night I sort of can't wait for it to happen again! (Next year anyway!! :) )

Harrison has also reached a milestone - He is now rolling from back to front ( still one way though) and pushing himself backwards. The beginning stages of crawling - which I am very impressed by and no doubt he will continue. I am watching carefully and working him hard to keep his left side moving as he is a not using his left arm or hand as much as the right - but so far so good.

And finally - Ella had chicken pox. And luckily for us Harrison has shown no sign of contracting this.. Now don't get too excited though, as it is only through the miracle of Intragam (plasma product with antibodies) that Harrison stayed well - as this would have contained chicken pox antibodies - and he had the last dose of that the week before Ella broke out. So we are very lucky that this happened when it did and Harrison ( and Marlie & Sterling too) stayed well.