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An Adelaide boy who is receiving treatment for a rare childhood cancer met the Matildas players before their journey to the Paris Olympics.
Xavier Pudovkin, 6, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma – a form of cancer that starts in nerve cells – when he was three years old.
After having some success with 18 months of treatments, he entered remission. However, six months later his family were told his long-term survival dropped to 20 per cent, so they began exploring drug trials overseas.
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Xavier’s story touched the heart of Sam Weidenhofer, a social media content creator with The Thank You Agency, who had been planning a morning tea between the Matildas and a special person in need.
Around the same time, Weidenhofer came across the Pudovkin family and thought they deserved the opportunity.
“It was very special and just so amazing to bring joy to Danielle’s family and Xavier,” Weidenhofer said.
Weidenhofer filmed Xavier meeting with the Matildas and posted it to social media, where it has attracted 20,000 likes and almost 200 comments.
Xavier’s mother, Danielle said the family watched all the Matildas games during the Women’s World Cup.
She said the meeting was an “amazing” experience for her son.
“They were really interested in Xavier and his story so they were asking questions and they interacted with the whole family as well,” she said.
Xavier is again cancer-free after receiving further treatment under a drug trial in the United States, but Danielle said she’s extremely nervous that he may relapse again.
The family will be travelling to New York over the next three years, sometimes as often as every three months, so Xavier can continue receiving treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Centre.
When they began the trial, they had to pay the hospital $320,000 to start treatment. They have set up two online fundraisers to help them manage the costs of treatment and travel.
The Matildas have further committed to donating $100 every time they score a goal to help grow Xavier’s funds
“That’s one thing I’ve found through this experience, how kind absolute strangers are and they just want to help Xavier.”
-with Tom Johnson.
