The Hitchcock Family - Auckland
The Hitchcocks are an active family of six who live in Auckland; dad Chris works as an architect, and mum Kate is kept busy running a household with four children – Harry (19), Amelia (15), Toby (12) and their “baby”, nine-year-old Ollie.
The family are no strangers to the hospital environment; Kate has bronchiectasis (chronic lung disease) and currently requires a lung transplant; Harry has bronchiectasis himself and spent his first weeks of life in NICU; Amelia has mild bronchiectasis and was in and out of Starship for her first year with recurrent pneumonia and developmental delays; and Toby has ongoing complications with his lungs. All four of their children are neurodivergent with diagnoses of ADHD, ADD and ASD respectively. But it has been Toby’s journey that has been one of the most challenging that the family has faced. 
“Three years ago, Toby was having recurring admissions for pneumonia,” Kate says, “he was sent for a CT scan to check for bronchiectasis but at that stage, it wasn’t showing.” What was shown however were abnormal growths in his airways that were causing breathlessness – Toby was struggling to run around with his peers. “This was during COVID and given our family’s history with lung disease we decided to stay in lockdown much longer than what was mandated.” When Toby finally went back to school, he found the environment extremely stressful, given he needed so many medical procedures and surgeries to try and address his issues. “We made the decision to move Toby to a new, smaller school to give him the wraparound care he needed,” explains Kate, “Toby has both autism and ADHD, and the new Principal would take him for a walk with the school dog whenever he needed to decompress. He has been challenged academically and celebrated for his successes which is wonderful.”
Toby has had to take steroids to try to help his lungs which have caused issues with his eating, putting him under the third percentile for weight; agonisingly, a recent CT scan showed significant bronchiectasis which has even resulted in large bleeds from his lungs. His situation has now become life-threatening, with an operation to have his lung removed scheduled for the coming weeks. “It’s a helpless feeling, watching your child go through something like this,” Kate says, “I’ve had to strongly advocate for Toby his whole life – for his autism diagnosis so that the wider world would understand his needs.” She has however been pleasantly surprised by the support the family have received from Toby’s medical team. “The whole team have allowed Toby to be in charge of his own care – kept him informed and really earned his trust. They have really celebrated him, even planning a last day party for Toby before he was allowed to come home.”
During this harrowing journey the family have found solace in the Ronald McDonald Family Room close to the ward. Kate explains, “during our recent month long stay the lounge was a welcome change of scene from the hospital environment. I felt like I could breathe – the staff literally wrapped their arms around us making us something to eat, a cuppa, and a comfortable chair to shut my eyes in.” Kate was extremely impressed by the facilities on offer to families like hers, especially the massages for stressed and exhausted parents!
The Hitchcocks have also recently stayed at the Rotorua Family Retreat; a service that RMHC NZ supplies families who are dealing with long-term hospital journeys and loss. “We’ve had a lot of heartbreak over this time both with Toby being so sick and myself facing a transplant. We desperately needed some joy in our lives,” explains Kate, “the week-long holiday we had a the Retreat gave us the chance to reconnect as a family and to have some fun together. We made memories that we’ll treasure forever.” 
“It has been an immensely stressful time for our whole family. Toby is so incredibly kind, he’s such a funny, smart kid. We are all hoping that next year will be better. Along the way, receiving respite from places like RMHC NZ and Toby’s amazing medical team have really made our journey so much more manageable.”