A splinter in Ollie's toe turned into a life-threatening diagnosis in a matter of weeks

A splinter picked up during a family camping trip turned into a leukaemia diagnosis for five-year-old Oliver Arya.

In December 2021 he headed off on a boys' trip with dad Andrew and older brother Elliott, where they spent sunny days kicking around a soccer ball in bare feet.

Mum Anna noticed the splinter in one of his toes as soon as he got home. 

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"His toe was very purple and he couldn't walk. He was limping, he was in a lot of pain, he was crying," she tells 9honey.

The whole family was due to fly to Townsville the next day so she swung by the local hospital to get the splinter removed and Ollie's toe flushed before they left.

Anna thought that would be the end of it but when the family contracted COVID-19 in Townsville, she realised something was off with her youngest.

Ollie's infected toe wasn't healing and he was fatigued, had a persistent temperature and kept getting nose bleeds. Even his three older siblings could tell he wasn't well.

The five-year-old was still poorly when they flew home and set off for one last camping trip before the summer holidays ended. That's when the rash appeared.

Anna had been Googling his symptoms and knew the tiny red spots on Ollie's skin were likely petechiae, a common symptom of leukemia. 

"I said, 'Something's not right ... we need to go home,'" she says. 

"So the next day we came home, I took him straight to the doctor [who] took one look at Ollie and said, 'You need to go to the hospital.'"

Anna's stomach dropped.

"I said, 'Is it leukemia?' And [the doctor] just looked at me," she says.

The GP tried to reassure Anna that Ollie might have had a vitamin K deficiency but the mum of four knew something was "really, really wrong" as she arrived at the hospital.

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While Ollie was taken for blood tests, Anna called Andrew and asked him to bring her a jumper from home.

Her phone rang as soon as she met him in the hospital car park 20 minutes later.

"If your husband's here, could you please bring him in? We need to speak to the both of you," the doctor on the end of the line said. Anna felt sick.

They were taken to a private room and told to sit down. When a doctor walked in with 'oncologist' written on his chest, Anna knew it was cancer.

Ollie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, and his family's "whole world fell apart".

In his first year of treatment, Ollie spent 123 days in hospital undergoing blood tests, chemotherapy and anaesthesia, all while separated from his older siblings.

It was devastating for his parents, who also had to see their little boy scared and in pain while their other kids waited for updates at home.

"All of a sudden, here we are speaking to multiple doctors, talking about all these treatments and not really understanding what was going on, plus still trying to relay that information to our children," Anna says.

Eldest daughter Isabella stepped up and to look after her middle siblings, Matilda and Elliott, but it was hard on the whole family.

Ollie endured intense cancer treatment and debilitating side-effects, including infections and rapid weight gain from chemo poisoning, and long days in hospital almost crushed his spirit.

That's when he'd visit the Starlight Express Room and the Starlight Captains, who always knew how to put a smile back on Ollie's face.

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"You can, for a brief moment, look at your child and know that spark within them is still there, it hasn't completely died," Anna says.

The whole Arya family came to rely on the Starlight Children's Foundation's "invaluable" support services during Ollie's treatment.

Even when Ollie went into remission, Starlight was a lifeline for the family as they learned to live with the physical and emotional scars of his diagnosis.

Now Anna hopes her son's story will inspire everyday Aussies to get behind Starlight's Christmas appeal so the organisation can continue supporting sick kids and their families.

This year, Starlight aims to raise $1.1 million by Christmas to grant 498 Starlight Wishes to seriously ill children and change their lives for the better.

In May, Ollie received his own Starlight Wish: his very own go kart.

"At first he wanted a motorbike. I said, 'Sorry, out of the question,'" Anna laughs.

"He's always been a massive motor sport fan so when he was granted his wish, the elation on his face, that joy and that happiness … it's not something that I'll ever forget.

"It was one of the best days we've had in the last few years."

That's the kind of joy she wants for every Aussie kid facing cancer — and there are so many more of them than most people know.

An estimated 760 children aged between zero and 14 were diagnosed with cancer in 2024 alone and though survival rates have significantly improved in recent decades, cancer still claims too many young lives.

"What we've gone through is horrible and I do not wish it upon anybody, but there are other people who have gone through worse," Anna says.

"This is the worst thing that's ever happened in my life, Ollie getting cancer, but there are other children who are no longer here with us so every day that he wakes up with a smile on his face is a gift in my eyes."

The Starlight Children's Foundation Christmas Appeal aims to raise $1.1 million to grant 498 Wishes. Donations will be doubled until the 24th of December. Donate here.

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