#Challenge4BrainCancer - Max's Cast for a Cure raises $115,000 for brain cancer research

Max’s Cast for a Cure raised a phenomenal $115,000 for the Charlie Teo Foundation! #Challenge4BrainCancer

The heart and energy of the Kirby family & volunteers was amazing. Their goal was to raise $5,000 and they absolutely smashed it!

The Kirby family are driven by their heartbreaking loss, remembering their son Max who lost his battle with brain cancer one year ago at only 5 years old. Read their story…

“Max was the most amazing, happy, smart, kind, beautiful soul who loved life and had a bright future ahead of him which was taken too soon. Born and bred in Darwin, he loved to get out on the boat and fish. He was always eager to catch a bigger fish than dad and we want to honour his life the best way possible and to raise awareness of childhood brain cancer.

In April 2017 when our beautiful healthy son Max was just 19 months old he started having a few nights of extremely restless sleep and clinginess. He then started having trouble walking. Much to our shock he was diagnosed with a malignant Brain Tumour called Anaplastic Ependymoma.

When we were first told the horrific news our first question was who is the best surgeon in Australia to operate on our precious boy. Amazingly we were told all surgeons are the same and it doesn’t matter who you get!

The same night we found out we were rushed interstate for surgery which didn’t go very well, and the surgeon only managed to remove about 30% of the tumour. He also suffered hydrocephalus and had to be rushed back for more emergency surgery a few days later. The swelling was that bad he had to have a permanent brain shunt implanted.

We were told another surgery would most likely not be possible even after chemo or radiation as removing his tumour was just too risky as it was wrapped around his brainstem. This meant Max would have a terminal diagnosis.

We made the decision to seek another opinion and went to Dr Charlie Teo. Charlie explained it was very high risk and Max would likely suffer some deficits but it was his best chance. It was still one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make in our lives but we decided to trust Charlie and Max had further surgery. Charlie performed keyhole surgery and this time there was only a small entry point which was in stark contrast to Max's huge scar from previous surgery. Charlie managed to get almost all of Max’s tumour removed as safely as possible, this was a huge deal and bought us 3 years of clear scans and great health post treatment.

Unfortunately Max’s tumour returned when he was 4.5 years old. This type of tumour is notorious for being resistant to treatment and often returning. We flew to Sydney again and Charlie operated once more and managed to remove the whole tumour and this time max had no deficits at all.

Sadly 6 months later the tumour came back very aggressively and spread into Max's spinal cord and brainstem and Charlie was unable to remove it this time without causing major damage.

Max passed away on the 9th May 2021 at home in his parents arms at 5.5 years old. However we are eternally grateful for Charlie for giving us 4 extra years that didn’t seem possible in 2017.

We were grateful Charlie offered lifesaving surgery and gave us some hope and precious years with Max. Consequently, we choose to fundraise for the Charlie Teo Foundation as all the money raised goes directly to research for Brain Cancer. The Foundation runs on a low-cost model that is completely transparent and is bringing hope for a better future. Thank you, we really appreciate your support in helping us tackle brain cancer HEAD-ON!” - the Kirby family