Charity gift from very special boy

By Ed Merrison
A LILYDALE boy who survived a battle with leukaemia has been rewarded for continuing his cancer crusade on behalf of others.
Thirteenyearold Adam Cruickshank has been awarded the Good Guys Good Kid Award for Victoria for his charity work.
Adam was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in March 2000, shortly before his eighth birthday, and endured just over two years of chemotherapy and related treatments.
When the treatment came to an end just before he turned 10, family and friends organised a big birthday celebration.
Rather than ask for the typical toys a young boy might want, Adam requested money.
And instead of accepting the birthday gift as a reward for his bravery, Adam chose to channel the $1700 back into the organisations that had helped him win his fight.
A portion of those funds went to The Royal Children’s Hospital’s (RCH) Department of Haematology and Oncology (now the Children’s Cancer Centre), where Adam received most of his treatment.
The rest of the money was shared between the charities Camp Quality, Starlight Children’s Foundation, MakeaWish Foundation and Challenge, all of which played a role in helping Adam through his illness.
Photos taken during Adam’s treatment show a strong boy with an almost constant smile, surrounded by family and the cheering influences of Captain Starlight, clown doctors and other figures of fun and support.
“I was lucky to get the chance to experience those charities and felt like helping them out because they helped me so much,” Adam said.
“It was pretty boring, lying in bed during my illness. Those people made it more exciting by visiting us, putting in things for us to do and keeping our minds off operations,” he said.
Adam also spent $150 on novelty BandAids to give to various departments of RCH and to the Royal District Nursing Service.
Adam’s mother, Elizabeth Cruickshank, said her son had undergone hundreds of blood tests and that novelty BandAids helped distract Adam and fellow young sufferers from the trauma of needles.
“Novelty BandAids are big things in children’s hospitals. They’re used to cover up needle pricks and pokes, and the kids wear them like a badge of honour,” Ms Cruickshank said.
For his last four years at Coldstream Primary School, Adam organised the Shave For A Cure campaign on behalf of the Leukaemia Foundation, and he has also written countless letters to potential sponsors of the Annual Challenge Ball every year since 2002.
During his leukaemia treatment, Adam developed epilepsy which he continues to battle as he carries on his fight alongside children with cancer and other lifethreatening illnesses.
Now an otherwise healthy year seven student at Mount Evelyn Christian School, Adam was awarded the Good Guys Good Kid award on Saturday, 17 September, and this time he might actually hold onto his reward, a Panasonic home cinema system.
“Those charities helped me and I’ve been able to help them back, but now to receive something for what I did feels great,” Adam said.
Adam plays football and tennis and loves sport in general, but the home cinema looks set to get a good run.
The new plasma screen does not trigger off his epilepsy and he has slept in the television room for the two nights preceding his interview.
“He’s going to lead a fairly normal, active life,” Ms Cruickshank said.
A normal life, perhaps, but undoubtedly a very special kid.