through it

“He fully understood what ringing the bell means, I pushed that to him a lot because I needed him to understand how important it was, because of everything he has achieved, just him on his own. I didn’t want him to ring that bell in the hospital and then walk out and be done,” Gordon said.

“It was incredible. Random people were stopping and watching and clapping, it was good.”

Now that he’s home, Gordon says his number one focus is recovery.

“He’s deteriorated a lot – he’s very skinny, very weak, because he’s still on his medications for another three months, until he has his next scan,” she said.

Xaviah will be looking to return to school at Oxley Park Public in March, going into Year Two. But, as his life hopefully starts to go back to normal, there’s one thing he can’t wait to do.

“There’s a lot he’s looking forward to, but the first thing he wants to do is go swimming,” Gordon said.

With Xaviah still having a 50/50 chance of survival, Gordon expresses her gratitude for the continued support from their family and friends, and from the community, including from fundraisers organised both by his school, and by Penrith Panthers legend Mark Geyer.

“I’m very grateful for everybody. I don’t know what I would have done a lot of the time if they weren’t there,” Gordon said.