Chad Thompson required surgery to repair a hole in his stomach just hours after birth on March 18.
Two weeks from today, the Good Friday Appeal will be in full swing.
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And one local family is asking people to be as generous as they can afford, as their son and grandson recovers from life-saving surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Zack Thompson and Amber Henderson’s son Chad was born on March 18 and was in surgery just a few hours later.
Scans during pregnancy identified that Chad had a hole in his stomach.
As a result, Amber was admitted to the Royal Women’s Hospital for the birth, and Chad came into the world at 12.34am on that Tuesday.
He was immediately whisked away by medical staff to the Royal Children’s down the road by ambulance, his dad at his side.
By 10am the medical teams there had concluded the surgery, and their attentiveness since has been praised by the family.
Recovery is expected to take three weeks, but at this stage the family are unsure when they’ll be able to bring Chad home to Deniliquin.
While he remains in the Royal Children’s, Amber is living at Ronald McDonald House with their three year-old son, Brax.
Zack and his mother Tania Thompson have also been sharing their time between Melbourne and Deniliquin over the past two weeks.
A family member must be there to support Amber at all times, as Brax is only allowed to go to the hospital and visit his baby brother on weekends.
Tania said they’re hopeful Chad can now live the rest of his life without any lasting impacts of the challenges of his first few weeks.
She said the care Chad and the whole family has received during the ordeal has only confirmed to them how important the Royal Children’s Hospital is for families all over Australia.
“The doctors, nurses and all the staff are just amazing,” Tania said.
“They don’t just look after their patient, but the whole family. The facilities are amazing, and while Chad is in hospital Brax has been enjoying craft days and pet bonding days at Ronald McDonald House, and even met some North Melbourne footballers this week.
“I used to door knock for the Royal Children’s all the time, and I remember someone once saying they didn’t feel the need to donate to a hospital in another state.
“We never thought we’d need to use the hospital, but here we are. And there are families from all over the country there.
Chad Thompson has been receiving marvellous care at the Royal Children's Hospital.
“It’s where our sick kids go, and I would certainly encourage people to donate or volunteer their time to door knock this Good Friday.
“Even if we had $1 for every person in the Edward River Council, that’s a good $8000 or so. And more would be great.”
In singing the praises of Ronald McDonald House which has provided housing for the family while Chad is in hospital, Tania said the family want to give back in the future.
She said the family are planning to hold a fundraiser later in the year to support the vital service.
Royal Children’s Hospital fundraising will be a little different in Deniliquin this year.
Chad was allowed out of the incubator Wednesday this week.
Due to a lack of volunteers, the local committee has not been able to organise the traditional raffle.
This would normally be drawn at the Deniliquin RSL Club on Good Friday evening.
There is also not enough volunteer support at this stage for the committee to run a formal door knocking campaign.
Individual families who have door knocked in previous years may still be out fundraising, and long-time Good Friday Appeal volunteer Fay Mills said she will be at the Deniliquin RSL Club on the day taking cash and cheque donations.
Deniliquin’s NSW Fire + Rescue firefighters will also host their annual Good Friday Appeal collection day, visiting the local caravan parks.
