Published by Melbourne Books
Level 9, 100 Collins Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
© Copyright 2013 Leonie Margetts
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (pbk)
Author: Peta Margetts, Leonie Margetts.
Title: Being Peta : living with luekaemia
ISBN: 9781922129260 (ePub, Mobi)
Subjects: Margetts, Peta. Leukemia—Patients—Biography. Leukemia in children.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Margetts, Leonie, author.
Dewey Number: 362.19699419092
Digital Distribution: Ebook Alchemy
Conversion by Winking Billy
Acknowledgements
Special acknowledgements to our Team at the Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, for your care, support and friendship.
Micka from Challenge, who brought a smile and a laugh with him to our time on the ward.
The staff, students and community of Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College, Leongatha for their unwavering support and for their assistance in making Peta’s wish a reality.
To all of the special people who came into our lives because of Peta and our Cancer Journey.
A cancer diagnosis at any age is devastating, but in young people it is particularly upsetting.
For more than twenty years, I have had the privilege of working with children and families living with cancer. Throughout my journey I have met many beautiful people who have enlightened me with their courage and perspective on life.
Upon meeting Peta and her family, I got a real sense that she knew who she was. Being diagnosed with leukaemia at sixteen years of age turned her world upside down, but Peta had a special way of dealing with this life-changing event. She had an incredibly strong character and always managed to see the positive, even on her darkest days. I know that writing this book provided Peta and her loving mum, Leonie, with a sense of healing, giving them strength to deal with their situation. Leonie’s love for her daughter is evident throughout the pages of the book that has now become a reality and an inspirational legacy.
I am humbled and honoured to have known Peta and her family and hope that in some small way, Challenge was able to bring some light into their lives when they needed it. Peta would be proud to know that her story has been published so that other young people going through a similar journey may be able to find some relief and support. Peta will be missed dearly by all who knew and loved her.
David Rogers
Chief Executive Officer
Challenge – Supporting kids with cancer
The first seven days
If I were in a super cheesy American movie, like A Walk to Remember, I would start this off by saying something like ‘it felt like just another day’. In a way, it did, but not really.
Wednesday 19 August 2009 was a very different day. I didn’t go to school, as I didn’t have many classes, and I was supposed to be going to the doctor’s at around 2.30 anyway. For about two weeks I had been feeling dizzy whenever I stood up. I would get headaches that lasted for an hour after standing up and I was tired all the time. Mum was worried that I had what my eldest sister has — Benign Intracranial Hypertension. For all those out there wondering, ‘What the hell is that?’ it’s when you overproduce spinal fluid, and you pretty much live with a massive migraine. Not too pleasant.
Anyway, so Mum and I went to see our doctor, Larry Goodfellow, who is more affectionately known as Larry. He sent me to have a blood test straight after my appointment, then I headed to my joyous job at McDonald’s. It wasn’t too bad a shift that night, actually. I almost enjoyed myself. And I got to go home early! Bonus! One of the managers, Matt, gave me a suspicious note, saying, ‘Give this to your mum. And don’t read it!’ Naturally, as soon as I had called home asking for someone to come pick me up and was outside and out of sight, I ripped it open. The note said something about letting Matt know how everything goes. He included his phone number so Mum could do so.
I read the note and thought, ‘Oh man, she’s called to tell him our bloody sob story. Sigh …’ Then my sister Justine (Jud, for short) pulled up in her lovely little Getz. I showed her the note and she made a comment about Matt’s seriously dodgy discretion. I thought, ‘Huh?’
So we drove home and walked through the door saying something like, ‘What’s for tea?’ only to see that everyone had pink faces from crying. I thought, ‘Oh crap, who’s died?’ I walked into the dining room and Mum told me to sit down. ‘Pete, your blood test results have come back. Larry’s coming around to talk to us about them. They think you might have leukaemia.’ At this point Ellie starts crying again and I, ever the eloquent one, say, ‘Shit’. Everyone gives me a look to say that they are in full agreeance.
I had a shower, then Larry came round and told us to go to Emerge (that’s ‘Emergency’, folks) at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. My sister Madeline looked like a lost sheep. Jud helped me pack a bag full of all the important things — clean undies, pyjamas, a copy of Dickens’ Bleak House and the all-important Baywatch perfume. (That was a running joke between us. Whenever any of my sisters or I went away, someone would smuggle the Baywatch perfume into our bags. It was foul — but hilarious.)
Mum went to get petrol and to see my school
