Selwyn Times: January 10, 2018
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4 Wednesday <strong>January</strong> <strong>10</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
SELWYN TIMES<br />
News<br />
Watch Jonty’s story at www.star.kiwi<br />
Meet Jonty: The cancer sufferer<br />
UPBEAT: Star Media events manager Vanessa Fleming and<br />
Jonty out for a run.<br />
When you run, walk,<br />
jog, rollerblade, or<br />
push your friends on a<br />
bed at the Star Media<br />
City2Surf in March you’ll<br />
be helping <strong>10</strong>-yearold<br />
Jonty Gray and<br />
other children like him.<br />
Andrew King reports<br />
IN MARCH last year, Juliet and<br />
Hamish Gray got some of the<br />
worst news a parent could receive<br />
– their eight-year-old son had<br />
cancer.<br />
Jonty Gray had been “offcolour”<br />
for a few weeks and<br />
was having regular headaches.<br />
On a family trip over Easter<br />
weekend last year he became<br />
breathless while walking up a<br />
hill and developed bruises on his<br />
body.<br />
His family returned from<br />
Wanaka and took him to<br />
Christchurch Hospital where<br />
he was diagnosed with T-cell<br />
leukaemia.<br />
Fast-forward 21 months and<br />
the <strong>10</strong>-year-old’s outcome is<br />
looking positive after numerous<br />
hospital visits, about six to<br />
nine months of intensive<br />
chemotherapy, and plenty of<br />
support from his family, friends<br />
and hospital staff.<br />
In March next year, Jonty has<br />
been asked to sound the horn<br />
which will start thousands of<br />
participants off in the Star Media<br />
City2Surf fun run.<br />
It seems fitting considering<br />
his role as an ambassador with<br />
partner charity, the Child Cancer<br />
Foundation.<br />
Participants will be able to start<br />
their own fundraising pages or<br />
join the ‘courage team’, which<br />
will be fundraising on the day, or<br />
make a one-off donation.<br />
Those who have signed up for<br />
the event can also visit the Child<br />
Cancer Foundation tent and<br />
receive a post-run sports massage<br />
by giving a donation.<br />
Mrs Gray, who is a dentist,<br />
said Jonty is responding well to<br />
chemotherapy, which he will<br />
finish in July 2019.<br />
Then doctors will monitor his<br />
bone marrow and watch for any<br />
side effects from the medication<br />
used to treat his cancer.<br />
When he first started showing<br />
signs of being unwell, it wasn’t<br />
apparent at the start just how sick<br />
he was.<br />
“We just told him to drink<br />
more water and go to bed<br />
earlier,” Mrs Gray said as he was<br />
complaining of headaches.<br />
When he was admitted to<br />
hospital, he was diagnosed<br />
straight away. “You think it<br />
can’t be happening to your<br />
family, but then that is not true<br />
as two to three children are<br />
diagnosed with cancer each<br />
week,” she said.<br />
About a week later, Jonty<br />
started his treatment, but he<br />
wasn’t letting it get him down.<br />
The creative boy came up with<br />
ways to amuse himself while in<br />
hospital.<br />
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