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An Adelaide family has turned to the generosity of strangers via crowdfunding to secure potentially life-saving cancer treatment for their child overseas.
Originally, help was expected to come closer to home in Adelaide, where plans were set for a pioneering Proton Therapy Unit in a North Terrace basement. However, the project has stalled, leaving only an unfulfilled promise a decade later.
In 2024, Levi, then nine years old, was diagnosed with stage-four medulloblastoma, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer, catching both him and his mother, Jade Elston, off guard.
“I cry a lot,” Elston shared with 9News, expressing the deep emotional toll.
“It feels like a dream. You don’t know what to do, and as a mum, you just feel helpless,” she added.
After years of some of the strongest chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Levi was in remission – twice.
But now, the 11-year-old’s cancer has come back.
“They did say when children relapse with medulloblastoma, especially with this third relapse, they often pass,” Elston said.
“He’s gone through a lot. He can hardly even walk to the toilet, he gets puffed out walking to the toilet.”
The only hope left for the family is a treatment called proton therapy, which is specifically targeted to treat childhood cancers.
“We specifically need that because there’s no way to operate,” Elston said.
That treatment was promised for South Australia back in 2016, with $500 million spent on the Bragg Centre on North Terrace and its purpose-built bunker.
It was meant to house a machine which never got built.
“Let’s not assume that, had there not been a delay, this program would have been in place by now,” government spokesperson Tom Koutsantonis told 9News.
SA’s Health Research Institute took the machine’s developer to court and last month won back $35 million over the failed contract.
But that’s cold comfort to the Elston family, who are now forced to crowdfund for an overseas trip to Singapore for the life-saving treatment.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler wasn’t available to answer questions, instead telling 9News he’s now canvassing other states to potentially host a proton therapy machine.
Whatever happens next, Elston has this message for politicians.
“Pull your head in and get it fixed, children are losing lives,” she said.
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