Spencer Gummery was two years old when doctors found a tumour in his brain

“I loved watching him learn to walk the first time,” Scott Gummery says of his four-year-old son, Spencer. 
 
“After the second time, I don’t want to see it again.”
 
Since his little boy was diagnosed with a brain tumour a little over two years ago, the WA dad has seen things no parent should ever have to.

At just two years of age, Spencer endured an eight-hour surgery that left him unable to move the right side of his body. He had to learn how to crawl, walk and talk all over again.

“We had some very bad times when we weren’t around him; you sit on the floor in the shower and you cry,” the father of two tells 9Honey.
 
“But around him, we were as happy and positive as we could be. It’s a strange one to explain - we’ve tried to make it fun.”

“We nicknamed him Baldy, and he thought it was hilarious,” Scott says.
 
Spencer’s diagnosis came out of nowhere in the lead-up to Christmas 2015.
 
Symptoms had begun a month earlier; the toddler was lethargic and unwell, but because the entire family had been struck down by a cold, Scott and Dionee assumed he had too.

Seven GP appointments and four hospital visits later, Scott and Dionee found themselves in an emergency room, with a doctor telling them a mass had been detected on their son’s brain.

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Within 36 hours, Spencer had been flown to Perth’s Princess Margaret Hospital by the Flying Doctors, and wheeled into surgery to remove the tumour from his fourth ventricle.

Dionee had accompanied Spencer in the plane while Scott dashed home to collect their daughter Ruby, who was six at the time, and drive to Perth.

As Spencer undertook seven weeks of radiotherapy, followed by five months of chemo, the family of four was split between Bunbury and Perth. 
 
Dionee lived with Spencer at Perth's Ronald McDonald House for eight months, while Scott and Ruby were based at home - travelling to the capital at every opportunity. 
 
During this already testing time, Ruby was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. “We had it all thrown at us in the same year,” Scott says.

“He had to be under general anaesthetic for every one of his radiation treatments. For seven straight weeks he’d wake up at 7am and be knocked out by 8 - it took its toll,” Scott says.
 
In “two-year-old terms”, he and Dionee told Spencer there was “something nasty” in his brain and that his doctors would do everything they could to get rid of it.
 
Now, Spencer is four years old and attends kindergarten two and a half days every week, loving every moment of it.

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Hearing aids and thinned hair at the back of his head, resulting from his surgery, are the only visible remnants of his cancer battle.
 
While their son is no longer undergoing treatment, Scott and Dionee refuse to use the words “cancer-free” or “remission” until doctors declare they no longer need to see him. For now, it’s “nil evidence of disease”.
 
Scott says the knowledge Spencer could relapse at any time is constantly on their mind.

Last winter, the Gummery family was granted a welcome break from the tough times they’ve endured, courtesy of the Make a Wish Foundation. 
 
The charity sent the four of them to Cairns for a week, planning the itinerary around Spencer’s greatest passion: transport.
 
“He is completely obsessed with garbage trucks,” Scott laughs. 

“Even in hospital, I got my sister to download some video clips of garbage trucks and planes taking off and landing. He just watched them over and over.”

The Cairns holiday saw the Gummerys travel on a plane, a cable car, and a helicopter - Spencer’s personal highlight.
 
“He still talks about it now,” Scott says.

Through a gala event last year, they raised $10,000 for a children's brain cancer research institute, and a further $27,000 for Ronald McDonald House.