Eight-year-old Daniel (or D-Man for short!) is an incredible young man.
Living with a rare brain tumour, his life is filled with frequent testing, treatments and hospitalisations.
Yet even in his own darkest times, Daniel cares for others.
Daniel's medical journey started when he was six years old when he started to lose weight and became unusually lethargic at first, and then began vomiting and losing his vision at school.
Doctors ordered an MRI to see if that could explain his symptoms, but what they found on the scan was a huge shock for Daniel’s parents Ray and Jacqui.
"Daniel was transferred by ambulance straight from his MRI to Emergency," recalls Ray, "and then directly into the operating theatre."
Doctors had discovered a large tumour on Daniel’s brain and operated that day to drain 110 millilitres of liquid from the mass.
The following days were incredibly stressful for the family as they waited for test results.
To Ray and Jacqui's great relief the tumour was found to be benign, but Daniel was by no means out of the woods.
"Although it’s benign, it's still not a great tumour to have," explains Ray, "as it can effect a lot of your growth hormones. It also can't be completely removed so we just have to manage it until he's a teenager and they can do a larger procedure to remove it."
As Daniel began to recover from his procedure, he started to become restless being stuck in bed. His nurses suggested his parents take him to the Starlight Express Room for a break and to ease his boredom and anxiety.
From that day on, Daniel became a regular feature in the room! The whole family loved that the Starlight Express Room provided a real break from the medical environment of the ward, and gave Daniel and his younger sister Ellie the opportunity to just play and just be kids.
Since his initial diagnosis, Daniel has had eight procedures, and has had 700ml of fluid drained from his tumour. He has scans and tests regularly to monitor the growth, but no visit to the hospital is complete without a visit to the Starlight Express Room.
While Daniel's condition has caused him a great deal of anxiety and stress, his parents are continuously inspired at Daniel’s "positivity and zest to make the most of his days".
When Daniel saw a poster promoting Starlight Super Swim at one of his hospital appointments, he asked his dad if they could take on the challenge together.
Because he loves the Starlight Express Room so much, Daniel wanted to raise funds to ensure other sick kids had the opportunity to benefit too.
Together, Daniel and Ray signed up for the challenge. Daniel picked $2023 as their fundraising goal (due to the year!), and they aimed to swim 40km between them.
Twice a week in the month of February, Daniel and Ray would get up at 5am and head to the local pool to swim laps for sick kids.
Sadly, in the middle of their challenge, Daniel began to feel unwell again, and felt like his tumour had grown. He was admitted to hospital and had another 85ml of fluid drained, to ease the pressure on his brain.
He was discharged two days later, and the day after that he was back in the pool, determined to reach his goal before the month’s end!
After 28 days of swimming, Daniel and his dad absolutely smashed the challenge! Between them they swam over 54.5km, and thanks to the generosity of their networks in Australia and abroad, together raised over $17,570 for Starlight.
Reflecting on their experience Ray says;
"Starlight does such wonderful work for families at the hospital. They give us an opportunity to have a little break, and a fun getaway from all the treatment. It really makes a huge difference to our hospital experience, so Daniel wanted to make sure more other sick kids can find that same happiness."
