JUST two months after being welcomed into the world beautiful baby boy Jonah Stein was forced to fight a battle no child should ever have to go through.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Diagnosed with a life threatening brain tumour on New Year’s Eve last year, Jonah has sine spent his short life separated from his family as the “tough little bugger” undergoes a gruelling regime of chemotherapy in Sydney.
During that time his father, Warrant Officer Quentin Stein, has stayed in Orange to care for his four girls aged 2, 4, 6 and 8, while Jonah and mother Kylie have been staying in Ronald McDonald House at the Westmead Children’s Hospital.
Each weekend Warrant Officer Stein packs up the family and travels to Sydney so the four girls can visit Jonah and their mother, a routine expected to continue until at least March next year.
The experience is another example of the cruel and indiscriminate nature of cancer and a lesson in the need to have a Ronald McDonald House based at the new Orange Base Hospital.
To help the make the house a reality Warrant Officer Stein and three other soldiers from the 1st/19th Battalion of the Royal NSW Regiment will ship out at 0900 hours today on a 231 kilometre charity walk between Orange and Sydney.
“Being down there [in Sydney] I’ve got to know a lot of families who have given up a lot in life to be down there permanently, there are plenty of sad stories,” Warrant Officer Stein said yesterday.
“I’ve been lucky, we’ve had my in-laws living with us and they’ve basically given up their lives to ensure the girls have some sort of normality.”
The fundraising target of $50,000 will be split evenly between the Ronald McDonald houses in Westmead and Orange.
“Jonah’s doing as good as can be expected for someone that young undergoing chemo, he’s a tough little bugger,” Warrant Officer Stein said yesterday.
“The Orange community has been so fantastic already, before we even leave we’ve done ourselves proud and so has Orange.”
The four soldiers will stop at McDonald’s in Bathurst on Sunday morning, Lithgow on Monday, Blaxland on Tuesday and at each of the seven McDonald’s between Blaxland and Westmead.
The idea to walk the 231 kilometres first came to Warrant Officer Mark Fisher several months ago.
“I’ve been in the army for around 29 years and it’s like one big family, when one of us are hurt we all hurt so we help each other out as much as we can,” he said.
The soldiers will be at McDonald’s in Orange from 7am today and will depart at 9am.
People are urged to donate at www.everydayhero.com.au/quentinstein.
