Six-year-old Elijah is his Grandad Graham’s best little mate. Living next door to each other, they’ve always shared a love of cricket and spend hours working on their Women’s Big Bash fantasy cricket team.
When Elijah was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia just prior to starting Prep, the family’s lives were turned upside down.
As they noticed him becoming unwell, his mum Kylie and dad Edan had taken Elijah to a series of GP appointments with an array of different symptoms, but each time they were told they were worrying over nothing. Eventually, Elijah was sent for a blood test.
Edan recalls “I’d taken him in for a blood test, and the nurse asked me to call my wife and get her to come in. She wasn’t making eye contact, so I said, ‘does my little boy have cancer’ and she just put her hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I’m so sorry’. That was probably the hardest day of my life.”
Elijah was admitted to hospital immediately, and suddenly his world was consumed by surgery, needles, and chemotherapy.
Unable to have any visitors, Elijah was left isolated from family and friends at a time he should have been building new friendships and having fun at school. Elijah’s only contact with the outside world was his facetime calls with Graham. They would spend hours chatting about the Women’s Big Bash and Elijah’s favourite team, the Adelaide Strikers, and analysing cricket statistics together to build their fantasy cricket team.
Inside of the hospital, Elijah was super excited to discover the fun and joy of Captain Starlight.
“I was at my wits ends one day, and exhausted,” recalls Kylie “and then we turned on the hospital TV and Starlight TV came on! He just instantly loved it!!”.
As soon as he was well enough Elijah would visit the Starlight Express Room as often as he could! The Captains could send Elijah into fits of laughter and he loved the silliness of their jokes.
“These kids are going through the worst times of their lives, so just to be silly, to be a normal kid again, that’s priceless” says Kylie.
While in hospital, Elijah learned he’d be able to plan his very own Starlight Wish! Immediately he told his mum “I want to see Tahlia McGrath play with the Adelaide Strikers!”. When Elijah found out his Starlight Wish was going to come true, he said “don’t joke now mum, don’t be tricking me!” He was so excited that his dreams were going to come true.
The whole family, including Grandad, was able to fly to Sydney to see the Strikers play. Elijah was the guest of honour of his hero Tahlia McGrath. Decked out in all the merch his dreams came true as he hung out with the team, and even took home the coveted match ball!
“Seeing Elijah so excited was such a circuit breaker for us. It really lifted him. Starlight became a light in a dark place. And it made an enormous difference” says Graham.
For Elijah, the incredible memories he made while spending a day with his cricketing heroes, together with his beloved Grandad, will last a lifetime.
Kylie and Edan are so thankful for the difference Starlight’s supporter have made to their son’s happiness.
"What Starlight made happen, this only exists because people give, this is going to be with us for the rest of our lives", says Edan. “Thank you so much.’
