Paul, Ellie and Ivy Robertson.

Young resident and former Harden local Ellie Robertson’s story has touched the hearts of so many already as the 26 year old wife and a mother of 16 month old daughter Ivy fights the cancer battle for the second time in two years.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Ellie which has already at the time of writing, gained $18,880 of her $20,000 goal due to the support of the community which has been overwhelming for the family.

Sister Leanne Schulz cannot thank the community enough for their support.

“I want to say thank you, because it’s been wonderful for people to read Ellie’s story and to have people more aware of it as well,” she said. “Read the story about what’s going on with Ellie is all I can really say.”

After finding cancer in her bladder at a routine pregnancy ultrasound in April 2021, she was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma bladder cancer, a cancer so rare, it was thought to be contained only to the bladder.

Ellie soon had two surgeries in her second trimester followed by the birth of her first child, Ivy. November she went in for what was thought to be the end of it and the final removal of the cancer.

The surgery was successful and it looked like Ellie was in the clear, but Ellie’s urologist kept a close eye on her throughout 2022, with regular appointments, routine cystoscopies, and 3 monthly CT scans.

In February, an abnormality was found in a routine CT scan and a PET scan and laparoscopy confirmed the reoccurrence of her cancer which had now spread to her peritoneum and bowel, making this now stage 4 cancer.

“We’re in shock because when she was first diagnosed, it seemed like it was just something being dealt with quite quickly and not to return because it was meant to be contained.

“That was our first understanding of the situation so when it came back, it’s been a terrible shock to the family.”

Ellie’s prognosis is unknown and she has a massive fight ahead of her, facing several rounds of chemo starting yesterday, surgeries and appointments, including a lot of travel time and long stays in Sydney.

Ellie has been forced to stop working while still carrying the burden of costs for both travel and treatment.

“She’s a new mum and also a fairly new wife as well. That’s a hard thing because if you’re normally in a situation like that, you can concentrate on doing all those things a normal 26-year-old would do, concentrating on enjoying spending time with your child and your husband.

“She should be able to be able to enjoy this time of her life.”

Ellie spent her early years in Harden which is why the folks of our township are rallying behind her and making sure she can afford her treatment and travel.

“Ellie did all her schooling in Harden from kinder all the way to Year 12. She used to love playing tennis a lot when the tennis club was running, she learned piano from Mrs Gibson in town.

“She worked at Maddens in the office after school before moving over to Young.

“Thank you to our community for all the care and support they’ve provided to donate to help us get through her financial stress, it’s really lovely.

“They’re completely down a wage and because they had bought a house and everything when this all happened, I knew that she had to leave work.

“I just was like, what can I do to help? There was nothing I could think of to help. I knew she was going to be in some financial stress, so I thought this was the one thing that I could do to help the family get through it.”

You can donate to Ellie by following this link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ellies-second-fight

any amount of generosity will be appreciated by the family.

Jack Murray