“I heard the thump and I heard her crying and I went in and she just kept saying my neck, my neck,” says Tunnage.
The next day, they saw a doctor and were sent for X-rays which showed nothing out of the ordinary. The pain was put down to something muscular and they were told to give it three weeks.
“In the course of those three weeks, things just started to keep going wrong. She stopped eating and her neck was really painful. She couldn’t hold her head straight, like she kind of had her ear to her shoulder,” recalls Tunnage.
Going back to her GP, Tunnage insisted things weren’t right and they were sent to Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department – where their fortunes changed. Kind of.
“We were lucky enough to catch one of the orthopaedic consultants who looked at her X-ray and said, ‘there’s nothing really wrong with it, but the curve of her spine is slightly off’.”
Indi was admitted so that she could undergo an MRI the following day.
“The reason that her spine curve was slightly off was because there was a massive tumour wrapped around her spinal cord. Within an hour of the MRI they had said, ‘there is an ambulance coming, you’re going on a life flight to Starship Hospital’.”
Tunnage’s voice shakes as she shares the moment that her little girl’s fight for her life began. That was 2019.
“It is still really traumatic,” says Tunnage.
When Indi arrived at Starship, the extent of what she was facing wasn’t yet known – they’d need a biopsy before confirming it was cancer. What the doctors could say was how close she was to losing her life.
“She only had a week or two before it would have severed her spinal cord, and we would have gone in one morning to wake her up and we wouldn’t have been able to.
“Or she would have been running around the backyard and then she just would have dropped to the ground,” says Tunnage.
Little Indi in recovery after a difficult surgery to remove a tumour from her spine. Photo / Supplied
The 2-year-old was in the best place she could be – but she wasn’t out of the woods by any stretch.
“They told us before the surgery that her odds of surviving the surgery were only 50-50. And that if she did survive the surgery, she would more than likely be paralysed from the neck down. So that was probably the longest four hours of my life waiting for that surgery to be completed,” says Tunnage.
Tunnage remembers getting the call that surgery was over, and she remembers how she answered that call – “Is she alive?”.
“Indi being Indi, who she is, she woke up from that surgery and she was completely fine,” she says.
“It was such a rollercoaster, your heart goes from just the depths of despair – putting your child into surgery and not knowing whether you’re going to see them alive again. To then being told that the absolute best-case scenario has happened.
“Her dad – Adam – and I were just indescribable, really.”
Indi Wealleans with her parents Adam and Aneke.
Within two days of that surgery, the tough-as-teak toddler was up and walking around.
The biopsy of the tumour revealed the enemy’s name.
“A rare form of cancer called Ewing sarcoma,” says Tunnage.
The next battle could be fought back in Christchurch as Indi prepared to begin cancer treatment.
“A week after we got home, her arm went dead. Every time she had to move it, she would grab it with her other arm and move it. So, I popped her into the hospital, and they did another MRI and the tumour had significantly regrown. She was put straight back into surgery,” recalls Tunnage.
There was no time to return to Starship as Indi went into her second major surgery just two weeks after her first.
“They managed to debulk the tumour, which was once again pressing on her spinal cord. They ended up starting emergency chemo the following day,” says Tunnage.
Tunnage was told that Ewing sarcoma typically grows slowly – but Indi’s had “exploded” after the first surgery. Nine months of intense chemotherapy followed that second surgery and in September 2019 she was given the all-clear. Cancer-free.
“After that, every three months we had to go to hospital to get MRIs to make sure she was still clear. That kind of carried on for three years until August 2022,” says Tunnage.
Indi Wealleans during her battle with a rare form of cancer. Photo / Supplied
That’s when a mother’s intuition kicked in. Tunnage had put her daughter to bed one evening and within half an hour she was writhing around her bed asleep, but screaming.
“It was the exact same scream that she was doing the first time, and I, and I went into her room and I looked at her and I went – ‘it’s come back’. I rang her oncologist the next morning and I said, ‘she’s relapsed’, which must sound mental,” says Tunnage.
An MRI confirmed her suspicions – but this time surgery wasn’t an option, and the odds of beating Ewing sarcoma a second time were even lower.
“We were told she had a 20% chance of survival,” says Tunnage.
Three years after their miracle outcome, Indi and her family were facing their darkest days yet – and now as a family-of-four.
“We just had another baby, Ivy was 3 months old when this happened,” says Tunnage.
Indi was now 6 and far more aware of what was going on.
Indi Wealleans 'always finds the silver lining' according her Mum, Aneke. Photo / Supplied
“You can’t go to school anymore and all your hair is going to fall out. You’re on steroids and within 2 weeks you’ve blown up like a balloon, you know?” says Tunnage.
What followed was 12 months of treatment – from high-dose to low-dose chemotherapy.
By mid-2023 the little girl who had beaten cancer, beat it again. And she’s still beating it.
Now she has a new challenge – to raise money for families on a similar journey.
“Indi is one of the ambassadors for Child Cancer Foundation,” says Tunnage.
The foundation is the charity that will benefit from the Alpine Winter Festival’s skate-a-thon in Hanmer, raising awareness and money. The offer to take part was too good to turn down – for Indi.
“Indi looked at me and she goes ‘you know Hanmer is my favourite place in the whole world?’, and I said yes, Indi. And she goes, ‘you know that I really like ice skating - even though you don’t let me ice skate?’. And I said, yes Indi, I’m also aware of this,” says Tunnage in a motherly tone.
Indi explains where her mum’s hesitation comes from.
“I don’t get to do it that much, because I could break my neck if I fall over,” says Indi.
Tunnage has relented this time and will join her daughter on the ice – they’ll both be careful.
“She hears those words, ‘be careful’ from me slightly too often. She’s always like, ‘Mum, you’re being too overprotective again’,” says Tunnage.
Indi Wealleans – the little girl who defied the odds and beat cancer twice.
It’s understandable with the journey they’ve been on – one that too many Kiwis are familiar with.
“There are three families every week that are told that their child has cancer. Now that we’re in a space where we are able to give back, we’re able to give our time, we’re able to tell our story, we’re able to raise awareness, so we’re making it our mission to make sure that all the families that follow us get the same level of support that we had,” says Tunnage.
Tunnage says Child Cancer Foundation is “not government funded” and needs to raise $6.5 million every year.
“I don’t know what we would have done without them. It would destroy me to know that Child Cancer Foundation couldn’t continue doing what they’re doing,” says Tunnage.
Mike Thorpe is a senior journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.
