LITTLE Lilly Best is an inspiration.
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The cheeky three-year-old’s story has inspired more than $34,000 in crowd funding donations towards her and her family.
Lilly’s parents Kristaly and Marc, of Stanley, were devastated by news earlier this month that Lilly not only had fluid on her brain, but also a brain tumour.
The news came just weeks after Mrs Best gave birth to Oakley, who is now 11 weeks old.
Mrs Best said Lilly came home from daycare with a bad headache, which alerted them that something wasn’t right.
‘‘She came home and went to bed and woke up fine the next day,’’ Mrs Best said.
‘‘But then about half an hour later she started complaining of another bad headache and she started vomiting.’’
A CT scan found Lilly had fluid on her brain.
She was transferred to the Royal Hobart Hospital and put under anaesthetic so that the fluid could be drained.
More tests and an MRI scan discovered the seven-millimetre tumour.
Mrs Best said the family was doing as well as it could.
‘‘Lilly lost heaps of weight and muscle mass and couldn’t eat [because of the fluid on her brain] but once we got her up and moving again, after it was drained, that went back to normal and she is her happy little self again for now,’’ Mrs Best said.
Friend Alicia Hardy has set up a Love for Lilly GoFundMe page to help offer financial assistance to the family as they travel back and forth between Stanley and Hobart.
The family had to find accommodation for a few nights on their first visit to Hobart this month, as Ronald McDonald House was full.
The crowd-funding campaign is a way to help the family with medical and accommodation costs, and will also see Mr Best, who is a builder, create a cubby house for his little girl.
On Saturday, $34,123 had been raised – well over the $3000 target.
Mr and Mrs Best have been overwhelmed by the support.
‘‘So many donations have come up as anonymous or are from people that we don’t know that have sent us beautiful messages,’’ Mrs Best said.
‘‘There’s just no words that you can say to thank all the people that have contributed.
‘‘You never imagine something like this will happen to you.’’
The family will return to Hobart on Monday.
Lilly will have an MRI scan on Tuesday, before surgeons access the tumour on Wednesday.
‘‘If they decide to operate it will be Thursday that they do it, but that depends if the tumour has grown enough for them to get in there and do what they need to do,’’ Mrs Best said.
‘‘Because of where the tumour is, the bigger it gets the more room they’ve got to get in there and deal with it without damaging anything.
‘‘We don’t know if we will be there for three days or three weeks, we’ll just have to wait and see.’’
Mrs Best said the family particularly wanted to thank the Stanley Football Club, Stanley Primary School, Toll Shipping (Burnie) and Bishop Construction, who had supported them over the past few weeks.
