My Girl's Baby Dream Will Come True

There’s hope despite a rare tumour.

Northland mum-of-four Rachel Carroll still wells up when she recalls the day she asked her 11-year-old daughter Trinity, “How many children would you like?”

Days earlier, the youngster had been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a rare brain tumour. With radiotherapy and chemotherapy scheduled to begin immediately, doctors informed Rachel, 30, that the treatment would eradicate nearly all of her daughter’s ovarian tissue and eggs, leaving her with just a two percent chance of ever conceiving.

“I want two kids,” Trinity replied. “One of each. By the time I’m 30.”

Rachel braced herself and asked, “How would you feel if you could never have children?”

The response – a flood of tears – was the only motivation the devoted mum needed to have the gravely ill and inconsolable youngster’s ovarian tissue harvested and frozen so that she might one day be able to fulfil her dreams.

“I knew the harvest was quite an invasive procedure,” explains Rachel, “but even when Trinity was a lot younger, she would always be the one holding the babies, getting their nappies and doting on them. ‘These are my babies,’ she would say. ‘When I grow up, I want to be a marine biologist – and a mum!’”

The Waipu family raised $5000 towards Trinity’s medical costs via Givealitte so that she could undergo the $930 tissue harvest and afford the ongoing $500 a year needed for storage.