I remember mum taking all of us to the doctors – our normal doctor was sick (ironic) so we went to a different one. I had a chest infection so it was antibiotics for me. My brother Lachie was climbing and fell off the wood heap and hurt his arm, so he needed an x-ray and they thought there might be a green stick break. Georgia had a sore throat AGAIN and a temperature of 40 degrees. Tonsillitis, mum thought. But no, the doctor asked if she was always so pale, and decided to do a blood test to see if she is anaemic. No hurry, he said.

Mum being mum took Georgia for blood tests at 2pm and Lachie for x-rays at 4pm and by the time we got home at about 5pm dad said the doctor rang and Georgia has a virus and needs to go to hospital now.

"I think Mum knew that there was more to this then she let on to us"

Mum and dad took Georgia to hospital and they did tests overnight. On Wednesday morning our life changed… Georgia had Leukaemia and needed to go to Newcastle NOW for treatment.

It was a long trip with Dad, Lachie, Nan and I. We all but moved to Newcastle’s Ronald McDonald House as Georgia started treatment at a Hospital nearby. My parents’ world seemed to revolve around nothing but doctors, hospital and of course Georgia. As if being a teenager wasn’t hard enough, for me, facing the day-to-day realities of Georgia’s disease was hard and was horrible.

I went to school at the hospital with Lachie but it still wasn’t my life. It was only a few days ago I was enjoying the movies with friends, going to Guides, playing soccer, being a kid with no worries, sleeping in my bed in my room. Now I was at the hospital all the time and having breakfast, lunch and tea with Georgia. I started keeping to myself; I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I stopped talking to friends and seemed to lash out at everyone around me, especially Lachie. How would anyone know how I feel?

"I didn’t know why I felt this way, after all I wasn’t the sick one, Georgia was"

For about four months, I didn’t know who I was anymore. I wasn’t Rhianna: Girl Guide, soccer player, friend, sister, daughter and student. I was poor Georgia’s sister: “How’s Georgia today?”, “Is Georgia getting any better?”. I would ask Mum if we could go to the shops and have a look around, and she’d say “Maybe later, Georgia has no nutraphils today”. Later???? Later never seemed to come.

It was Georgia this and Georgia that. Everything was revolving around Georgia. Mum and Dad were so wrapped up in Georgia that it was like I was the forgotten one. I wouldn’t talk to Mum and Dad about how I felt. They would ask me if I was feeling okay but they were so focused on Georgia and I didn’t want to burden them with how I felt.

I started going to a young person’s support organisation and I realised I wasn’t alone: there are others that feel the same as me. They provided the support system my family couldn’t at the time. It made me feel like me again. I still have bad days but the group is always there for me, it’s my lifeline, it would have been so hard to get through the last 12 months without that support.

"251 days after that Wednesday in October 2008"

we moved out of Ronald McDonald House in Newcastle and back home. A bone marrow aspirate 2 weeks ago showed Georgia has no active Leukaemia cells but she will still require chemotherapy every night for 12 more months and many drugs each day. That means having the many side effects that come with it and making trips to Newcastle for the next five years – and then hopefully she gets the all-clear.