By Luke Voogt
Highton father Elie Freijah owes his life to Royal Children’s Hospital, a debt he’s continued repaying ever since its doctors saved him.
“That’s why I do what I do,” said the Good Friday Appeal’s Geelong area manager.
“If not for them I wouldn’t be here and my kids wouldn’t be here.”
Elie was four and living in Horsham when doctors diagnosed him with a kidney tumour, which had spread to his lungs and liver.
“They said to mum and dad, ‘Get in the car and go straight to the Royal Children’s – you have to leave now’,” Elie remembered.
“They basically gave me a 30 per cent chance. I was diagnosed and under the knife 48 hours.”
Doctors removed the tumour at Christmas 1980, but Elie would spend most of the next 12 years “on a drip” and “violently vomiting” after chemotherapy.
He remembered seeing New Year’s fireworks reflecting off the walls of his hospital room soon after the operation.
“Dad was trying to lift me up, so I could see them but I was just in too much pain.”
Hospital life soon became the norm for Elie.
“It was all I knew, but I always had questions, like, ‘Why can’t I play with the other kids?’.”
At six, Elie took to the streets with his parents to begin raising money for the appeal.
“Dad got us involved doing tin-shaking at intersections.”
Elie finally went into remission at 16.
Now appeal area manager for a decade, he was busy organising the city’s efforts again this week before Good Friday.
“The week before is a nightmare,” he said. “If I had hair, I’d tear it out.”
Elie hoped Geelong could this year beat its 2014 record of $555,555.
“But at the end of the day, the only total I care about is the one on the night,” he said, “so long as that gets smashed I’m happy.”
Geelong has raised $6,385,487 for the appeal since 1974.
