Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Father Shares Tragic Story Of His Child's Cancer Battle

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Matt Swan the father of Portia Rose Swan, shares the story of his daughters brain tumour battle. If you are keen to help out, the givealittle page is here: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-portia-swan?fbclid=IwAR3ZnzGj9ypwXissCCVhvDcJUk7F7J_dL85q5x760cqrZf0JY2OT-EqhNGYSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben on The Hits. Now, I'm going to bring you on to the program. A mate of mine, Matt, he's been cutting my hair for many, many years. But we're about six weeks... No need for me, though. I've got no use for Matt. No, you've got no use for me. Jono, you're a little bit like me, too.

We're in the same world now. Yeah. But, Matt, good morning, Matt. Thanks for joining us this morning. About six weeks ago, you and your wife, Penny, your whole family's life was really turned upside down. Oh, my God, guys. It was a little bit like a disbelief.

It was like being caught in a nightmare, your worst nightmare effect that you couldn't wake up from. Our darling daughter, Portia Rose, she's our youngest of five daughters. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor called astrocytoma, which look, effectively is a nasty cancer to have in your brain. And look, you know, immediately we just went into absolute trauma going, how can this be? So look, you know, immediately once the kind of shock settles in, you kind of work out, okay, so where to from here? Feel for, you know, what you guys are going through.

Because out of the blue, this sort of happened, you know, Portia had a seizure and then they kind of sent her home, thought that everything was related to a virus she had. Yeah, what happened is she had a seizure at the dinner table and the kids thought she was playing a bit of a prank because she had just literally dropped her head down onto the dining table and her arms were kind of, you know, just perched on the sides. And I think they thought she was doing some kind of statue act

for a couple of moments. And then they realised that, hey, this isn't quite right. And we lay her to the ground and she was having a seizure. The unusual thing was that she wasn't shaking like lots of kids do when they have a seizure. She was completely still, but her face colour was changing, her eyes were rolling back, she was throbbing from the mouth, she lost consciousness.

I'm just like completely beside myself. You can imagine there's four other, there's three other, at that time there was three other sisters in the house in clinic. Everyone's trying to grab a phone. It was just like, oh mate, it was something from ER, right? It was just like,

it was just, it was completely out of control. It was clearly not picked up at the very first visit. And look, I just would encourage parents out there that have children that ever have a seizure or just having headaches, worse than a normal headache,

to get them to the hospital and demand a scan, a scan of some sort. Common story, isn't it? So many people go in and they just don't get diagnosed and it happens so regularly. Yeah, it may not have made any difference, right? But what would it have done? It would probably have been six weeks ahead of our game. Effectively, it was misdiagnosed and they ran a CT scan at that point. And a guy came out to us with a very kind of disturbing look on his face.

And he said, the CT scan is showing an abnormality. We need to transfer you immediately to Starship. So we got her to Starship. And I tell you, when you arrive at Starship, things happen pretty quick. We had an MRI done the next day, and then bingo, bang, there it was. You could see it just plain and clear.

This big tumour, left hand front side. So it's an incredibly serious thing to keep an eye on with children. Well I can imagine now. Portia, as you said, she's just 14 years old and you guys have got a bit of a battle ahead of you right now. Talking to you the other day,

you're trying to stay positive, which is the outlook ahead, but obviously if people Talking to you the other day, you know, you're trying to stay positive, which is the outlook ahead. But obviously, you know, if people can help you, family have set up a Give A Little page. Yeah, we have. You know, and it's been a pretty overwhelming experience, right? You know, you go from sometimes a bit like an emotional roller coaster. You know, one moment you can be in absolute trauma and distraught and then the next minute you know you are just flooded with emotions of giving and kindness and support and the gratitude we have that is is quite overwhelming to be honest and so look we did guys we set up a give a little page because we've got a huge road ahead of us a huge road And it's going to be extremely costly.

Darlene Portia, you know, she's only just turned 14 years old, and you just think, how can this be? How can the world be so cruel to someone who hasn't even started their lives? And, you know, I look at her, the bravery, the strength, the courageousness that she has is just amazing. Some of the dialogue you hear is pretty distressing, right? And, you know, and there are moments, you know, they're talking about, you know,

going out and taking off some bucket list stuff. And you just think, you know, oh my God, like, you know, I don't know if I can even emotionally deal with that right now. I can imagine, yeah. Oh, Matt, we're sending you and your family so much love. And you might have seen it in the New Zealand Herald yesterday. We'll put a link on the Hits Breakfast on our Instagram and the story as well, if anyone can help you guys out.

Because as you say, there's a lot of, a big road ahead for you guys. And, you know, there's a lot of treatments not funded by the public health system. So if you can help. So they go to, they just go to givealittle.co.nz, and when you go on to donate, you'll see Portia pretty much right at the front. Any way that people can help, the smallest amount,

and we are so appreciative of any denomination that someone can help us through this journey, it would be really wonderful. Well, I imagine there's a lot of people driving to work right now going, jeez, you're living through their worst nightmare. You would be really wonderful. Well, I imagine there's a lot of people driving to work right now going, geez, you're living through their worst nightmare. You guys are very brave. We wish you all the best, and no doubt you're going to get many more donations.

Thank you, Matt. Thank you so much, and we'll certainly keep you posted as the journey unfolds. Yeah, please do. We're sending a lot of love your way, and if you want to text donate to 4487, we can send you to the link how you can help Matt and Portia and their family right now.