Givealittle to help Aneliese's battle

For most families, the school holidays are a hectic mix of outings, playdates, late nights and lie ins.

For the family of Aneliese Kay however this holiday, and the one before, have been very different.

In the July holidays, the bubbly 12-year-old complained of a headache. Three days later, Aneliese was diagnosed with a brain tumour and the family had started the biggest fight of their lives.

Aneliese's mum, Erika, grew up in Stratford, attending Stratford High School. While Erika and her husband Nick now live in Hamilton, they still have links with Taranaki through both sides of the family, Erika's parents, Donna and Peter Jackson live in Stratford and Nick's family are based in Hawera, where he attended school.

Nick's sister, Rachel, runs a business in Hawera and says Aneliese's diagnosis has been a shock to all the family.

"This doesn't happen in our family you think, cancer wasn't something we had come across personally before so this has been a huge learning curve for us all."

Feeling far away, Rachel set up a givealittle page to help raise much needed funds for Aneliese and her family. "They are spending a lot right now, travel to and from Hamilton for Nick and Aneliese's siblings to see her while Erika is staying at Starship with her, Erika had to give up full time work to be able to focus on Aneliese."

Another aim of the page is to ask people to send Aneliese recipes.

"She loves to cook, and we thought if she could collect recipes from people all around the world, then she can look forward to trying them out when she is better, it gives her something to aim for," says Erika who adds she is thrilled by the response of people from all over New Zealand and the world in sending her daughter family recipes.

The response has already been fantastic says Rachel, who hopes to turn the collection of recipes into a special book for Aneliese, "which perhaps could also become a fundraiser for a cancer charity later on".

For grandmother Marion Kay, Aneliese's determination to fight is inspiring.

She is a determined wee girl, she is the type who won't stop until she succeeds

grandmother Marion Kay

"It is hard seeing her so unwell. She has lost her hair now and has lost weight too."

Marion and Rachel are asking people to keep sending their family recipes to Aneliese, who loves being creative in the kitchen as much as she loves One Direction and animals, especially cats!

"It really has made a difference, that combined with the donations to the givealittle page are helping keep Erika and Nick going. It is helping them all look forward to the future at a time when we can't even plan for Christmas right now."

Visit the givealittle page for more information.

Recipes can be sent to the Stratford Press, PO Box 300, Stratford and we will send them on.