Launceston baby Ariel Stevens back home for Christmas, but still fighting brain tumour

At just five months old she was diagnosed with an aggressive and inoperable brain tumour, and has spent more of her short life in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne than in Tasmania.

She’s been described as “a fighter” and, with some tentative success of a new chemotherapy regime, the 14-month-old was strong enough to travel home for Christmas.

Ariel’s mother Lani Stevens said the latest scan showed some shrinkage of the tumour, but there was still a very long road ahead.

“She is going well at the moment, the latest scan was positive, but she is still not quite halfway through the treatment so we have another six months at least of treatment to go, but she is doing pretty well at the moment,” Mrs Stevens said.

“We’ve got through six of the 16 cycles, but they might not do all 16 cycles of the protocol. She hasn't been well enough really to come home so it was pretty special and a bit of normality for a couple of weeks which has been nice.”

The family is due back in Melbourne on January 3 for Ariel’s next round of chemotherapy.

When they get to the mainland she will also be fitted with a hearing aid, after developing permanent hearing damage from the treatment.

Ariel celebrated her first birthday on November 5 and, while she is not hitting all of her developmental milestones, she is starting to break into a smile and ‘chat’.

“That’s to be expected because she was quite unwell for those first four or five months in Melbourne, she couldn’t get out of the cot because she was so unwell, she was pretty much sedated with medicine to help with her pain and seizures,” Mrs Stevens said.

The family is deeply thankful for the support from the Launceston community, which they say has made a “massive difference”.

“Without that money we would have had to sell the house and everything, so it has been overwhelming, the support from complete strangers, as well as from friends and family. Even just the emotional support from strangers [has helped].”