childhood cancer // dancing for finlay + papa

In February 2015, my blogging friend Katey had the life changing news that her beautiful 18 month old boy Finlay had cancer. Stage 4 Hepatoblastoma, to be precise. Utterly devastating news - I cannot even imagine :(

Finlay has been courageously fighting this terrible cancer ever since, with his amazing family always by his side. He has been through chemotherapy and all sorts of treatments in hospital. And he is now having a mammoth eight hour surgery TODAY to remove the cancer, having flown across the country from his home in Perth to Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney.

Katey and I are part of a small group of amazing fellow Aussie kid bloggers. When we heard the news from Katey, the group was desperate to show our support in any small way we could. We gave what we could practically, but wanted to do more and it seemed fitting to use our blogging platform to help get the word out. Having seen the #justkeepdancing project started by Ellen Degeneres after Katey's kids took part, we knew we’d love to dance for Finlay and donate what we could to his family and to ongoing cancer research. We’d love for you to do the same, as raising support and awareness means a lot to this family right now!

As many of you know, our lives are also deeply affected by cancer at the moment. My beloved step-father, David, is in the end stages of pancreatic cancer. Although his journey is a very different one to Finlay, today the kids are also dancing for him. He always, always takes joy in every day and every moment. Even now, even going through this, he smiles at the birds outside his window, at the smallest flower brought inside. He still finds reasons to laugh, to wonder, to be thankful to God. He still loves music, he loves his grandkids and if he could, he would still love to do some dancing too :)


So, today my kids are dancing. For sweet Finlay, for our beloved Papa, and to celebrate the love, hope and prayers that we always have.....


Oh, our video is very simple, but it does include a special surprise guest at the end ;)

Oh yeah, they know how to get their groove on ;)

Before I go, some more information on this topic it's important to know...


Childhood Cancer Facts:

·         #1 Killer of Australian Kids from disease
·         The causes of Childhood Cancer are unknown – there is no prevention
·         98% of Childhood Cancer survivors will develop chronic medical conditions as a result of their treatments
·         4 Families hear the words ‘Your child has cancer’ everyday
·         3 Kids die from cancer every week, between 150 and 160 every year
·         Childhood Cancer is NOT the same as Adult Cancer
·         1000 Kids aged 0 – 24 will be diagnosed with Childhood Cancer every year



If you would like to support Finlay and his family as they go through this unimaginable battle, please click here.
If you would like to support research into childhood cancer, please click here.
If you would like to follow along as Finlay and his family face this battle, click here for their Facebook page - the bigger their cheer squad, the better!!


And if you want to raise awareness about Finlay and the terribly high incidence of childhood cancer, please share this post. WHY? Because where there is awareness, there is funding. And where there is funding, there is a cure.


Thank you on behalf of a little fair haired hero named Finlay xx

PS It was my sweet husband's idea to include Optimus Prime in the video! When I told him about the video we were doing for Finlay, he wanted to include Mr Prime as he said 'what little boy wouldn't love a dancing robot?!' Hope you get a giggle out of it, Fin!!! xx


PPS Find more amazing blogs who are showing support with cute dancing and dancing ideas here -

• Picklebums
• Just for Daisy
• The Craft Train
• Octavia and Vicky
• Paging Fun Mums
• My Little Bookcase
• Childhood 101