SPECIAL Care Unit nurse Jessica Smith has looked after hundreds of vulnerable babies covered in tubes at Tamworth hospital.
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Never did she think her own son Maverick would be one of them.
"I work in the special care nursery at Tamworth so babies are my thing," she said.
"This has definitely helped me understand how a lot of mums feel with all the cords, lines, treatments that are normal to me now, it's eye opening that's for sure."
Just after his four month immunisations, baby Maverick was sent for an emergency appointment with a paediatric dermatologist in Newcastle.
A week later he was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare immune system cancer.
"Ever since he was born he was always an unsettled baby," Ms Smith said.
"He's just finished his first intense round of chemotherapy and this week we are getting more tests and scans done to see if he is making progress.
"The skin rash was the first sign that something was wrong, but inside he had tumours and lesions from his neck down in his lungs, liver, spleen and lymph nodes."
Ms Smith and Maverick have been at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle since February, and her partner Alex and daughter Matilda travel down as often as they can.
A GoFundMe for the family started with a goal of $3000, but overwhelming support from the community has seen it soar to almost five times that.
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The condition itself is extremely rare, Ms Smith said, so the family has decided to take part in a clinical trial.
"We were told it's one to two in every one million babies and one in every 200,000 children," she said.
"I understood from a medical background that in a trial there are a lot of people looking in so nothing gets missed, and for other families the treatment will be figured out for them."
Ms Smith said she was overwhelmed by the generosity of the community and even strangers.
Any support will be used to offset the family's money worries, support and maintain normality for Matilda and the remaining will be to support the oncology family rooms in John Hunter, Redkite and Ronald McDonald house in Newcastle.
The family expects to remain in Newcastle until at least May.
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