Our son, Tylah, with his creativity and imagination, became a lifeline during times of isolation when Codee-Jo’s blood counts were low. When possible, cousins and close friends would visit, precious moments that lifted her spirits and brought some sense of normality.
But it soon became painfully clear that this wasn’t enough.
Codee-Jo was missing out. Not just on education, but on the social connections that help children grow, build confidence and learn how to belong. With regular hospital stays, ongoing treatment and prolonged isolation due to low immunity, mainstream childcare, kindergarten and school were simply not an option.
For oncology children aged 2 to 5 in South Australia, opportunities for safe social and educational development were extremely limited.
We realised this wasn’t just about our daughter. This was a gap affecting so many families, children who deserved the chance to learn, connect and feel like kids, even while battling life-threatening illness.
After researching what existed elsewhere, we found a similar playgroup in Adelaide’s north and knew instantly: the need was real, and it needed to exist in the south too, but not just as a playgroup, a Playgroup/Preschool.
From that need, from that lived experience, Lion Hearts Learning was born, for Codee-Jo, for our family, and for every child walking a similar path.
And from there, over the 7 years, from one service to four it was grown and now Lion Hearts Learning now supports children and families impacted by cancer, including children undergoing treatment, children whose parents have cancer, and children with compromised immunity due to serious medical conditions.
When illness arises, it affects not only that person but the whole family. Lion Hearts Learning was created so none of them are left behind.
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In 2017, founders Jolyn Phillipps and Matthew Townsend found themselves completely unprepared for the moment that would change their lives forever, the day their daughter, Codee-Jo, was diagnosed with leukaemia.
April 2017 became the start of a journey no parent ever imagines taking. Life turned upside down in an instant. What had been a happy, ordinary family life was replaced by fear, uncertainty and survival mode. Those early months were lived hour by hour, a blur of hospital visits, medications, tears we held back and bravery we didn’t know we had.
We were terrified. Yet we laughed when all we wanted to do was cry. We gave medications at home while desperately wishing we could run back to the hospital and let the nurses do it for us. For a long time, we truly believed we would wake up from a nightmare and it would all be over.
Through it all, Codee-Jo fought with everything she had. Injections, ports, oral medications, regular theatre visits, IV chemotherapy, she faced it all. One minute she’d be vomiting, the next with a bleeding nose, yet she kept going. She has the heart of a lion.
As parents, we learned very quickly that even in the midst of crisis, life keeps moving. As much as we wanted to crawl under a rock, we knew we had to keep treading water, to be strong for our family and for our children.
We began to focus on the present, and on the future. On what our children needed to feel happy, supported and balanced while navigating such an overwhelming challenge.
