A young family, who have only lived in Cobar for a short time, has been overwhelmed with the community support they have received following their baby daughter’s serious illness.
Harvey Norman Cobar franchisee Tyler Wilde-Bird arrived in Cobar in February and his family—wife Savannah, their three-year-old son Myles and baby daughter Peyton—joined him two months later.
A fundraiser on Sunday, another planned for next month and a GoFundMe page have been well supported by locals to help the family with travel and medical costs as Peyton undergoes treatment for an eye tumour at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
Three months ago, when Peyton was nine months old, the couple noticed that one of her eyes had started to change colour.
“She had blue eyes and the right one turned grey,” Savannah told The Cobar Weekly.
Peyton’s condition was initially incorrectly diagnosed as heterochromia, a usually harmless condition, but she was later re-diagnosed with a very rare Juvenile Xanthogranuloma (JXG).
Following a biopsy on Monday, Peyton’s doctors have determined that she has a tumour in her eye.
Savannah advised yesterday they were waiting on pathology results to know if the tumour was benign and what future treatment would involve.
She said their family was appreciative of the support they have received from their new home town. “Cobar has shown us what a community is all about,” Savannah said.
