Sammy's story

Travelling to the US during a pandemic seems reckless – but not if the science your child needs isn’t available at home. Kristy Colakidis shares with us her family’s tough decision. 

When five-year-old Sammy gets on a plane for the US, something she does every few months, she’s got her best outfits packed.

“Well, there has to be stockings and a dress for the hospital visit!” laughs her mum Kristy. “She does it in style.”

Why would a parent take their child to the US again and again in the middle of a pandemic? It’s a question Kristy and Steven Colakidis have asked themselves many times over the past year, and still ask themselves. And the answer always comes back the same: to give Sammy the best chance of living.

“We have weighed up every factor and it’s worth it,” says Kristy. “But I wish that we didn’t have to.”

Sammy was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in June 2019, at the age of three. She began travelling to the US from Melbourne in October last year to take part in a two-year clinical trial of a maintenance drug.

Neuroblastoma is a solid tumour cancer that can occur anywhere along a child’s sympathetic nervous system. About 40 kids are diagnosed with this cancer in Australia every year.

Read more: "Cage fighting" with neuroblastoma

For Sammy’s aggressive type of neuroblastoma, the survival rate is around 50 percent because relapses are very common and harder to treat.

“Our hope in doing this clinical trial is to prevent Sammy having a relapse,” Kristy explains. “We have to go across the world to do this, because Australia doesn’t have access to this trial.”

A family put to the test

Sammy is just one of four daughters in the Colakidis family – there’s also twin sister Alexandra and older sisters Georgia, 6, and Charlotte, 8. From the looks of their family photos, they’re a family that enjoys life no matter what.

“There’s never a dull moment in our house,” Kristy says proudly. “My girls are not quiet. They’re out to change the world.”

The decision to go to the US (which involves seven trips over two years) means a lot of planning and sacrifice to arrange flights, accommodation, and quarantine.

There’s also the physical separation. Sammy and mum Kristy are effectively spending a third of their lives away from home, because of Covid-19 quarantining rules both here and in the US.

And there is also the very real chance of contracting Covid-19 while travelling.  

“It’s hard, we’re definitely stretched,” admits Kristy. “But we’re also figuring it out. The kids are encouraged to talk about their feelings. We do lots of video chats when we’re away, particularly between Ally and Sammy, so they still have their twin connection.”

Images: Alan Moyle, Photobat.