{"id":7986,"date":"2020-04-08T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T00:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=7986"},"modified":"2020-04-08T11:14:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T01:14:57","slug":"cant-stop-me-smiling-little-maxwell-keeping-spirits-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/cant-stop-me-smiling-little-maxwell-keeping-spirits-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Can\u2019t stop me smiling – little Maxwell keeping spirits up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words:<\/strong> Alanah Frost, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

Photography:<\/strong> Alex Coppel, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

Not even a day in oncology can stop Maxwell White\u2019s cheeky personality from peeping out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The youngster, of Bundoora, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in November last year after his mum, Vikki White, took him to see a GP for swollen glands.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Maxwell, 2, will have two years of treatment at The Royal
Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was all very, very quick,\u201d Ms White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in hospital for about five weeks (following the diagnosis).<\/p>\n

\u201c(But) we were out just before his second birthday and Christmas, which was lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell, who started treatment almost instantly, is now on his third round of chemotherapy \u2014 which he receives at The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will last about two years and we\u2019re four months in,\u201d Ms White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the chemotherapy treatments causes a lot of nerve pain, and pain in your legs. But he has been walking the whole time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves watching (TV show) Bluey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe copes very well with everything now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being attached to an IV drip, the 27-month-old still gleefully runs down a hallway at the RCH\u2019s day oncology unit, with his mum in tow.<\/p>\n

He stops short of Herald Sun photographer Alex Coppel, who tentatively plays a game with him in order to draw out a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeek-a-boo!\u201d shouts Coppel, to the little boy\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n

Maxwell will be a regular oncology patient for the next two years as his little body fights to get better.<\/p>\n

Ms White, who also has her hands full with a six-year-old and a six-month-old, said focusing on the \u201cpractical\u201d side of Maxwell\u2019s treatment helps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our moments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stay very much focused on his medicines and his appointments at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd family and the hospital (staff) make it easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say to him we\u2019re going to go play with the nurses (for appointments) \u2014 and he\u2019s happy. He likes the nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s that cheeky nature that ultimately gets Maxwell, and his family, through.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a very cheeky little laugh and he knows exactly what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Ms White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so cheeky \u2014 the middle child \u2014 very cheeky.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. He\u2019s a happy boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Good Friday Appeal will raise money for The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital to help care for kids like Maxwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not even a day in oncology can stop Maxwell White\u2019s cheeky personality from peeping out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,7198,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-good-friday-appeal","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7986"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8002,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions\/8002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}