2-year-old Flynn is a fire-truck-loving, outdoorsy little guy who is always on the move… even as he battles a rare form of brain cancer.

At only 19 months old, Flynn’s parents took him to the emergency department for a sudden onset of poor balance.

A CT scan revealed the worst… Flynn had a large tumour at the centre of his brain and a large build-up of fluid that required immediate surgery to release the pressure.

Flynn was admitted to their local hospital in Townsville for emergency brain surgery the next morning, after which he was urgently transported by the Royal Flying Doctor Service 1,400km away to Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Within the week, Flynn had another brain surgery during which a biopsy was obtained of his tumour.

On January 14, his family received the official diagnosis of brain cancer – specifically an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour (AT/RT)

An AT/RT tumour is a rare and aggressive cancer of the central nervous system typically found in children under 3 years old.

His mum told us, “In that moment, our whole world fell away.”

A day after receiving his diagnosis, Flynn was wheeled into the operating theatre for an 8-hour major brain surgery during which surgeons were able to remove his tumour. Unfortunately, in the process, Flynn suffered a stroke and developed posterior fossa syndrome which took his ability to move, talk, eat, drink, and even swallow his own saliva.

With focused recovery over the following month, Flynn regained some of these capacities, but he’s still unable to walk and talk.

From February to July, this brave boy had 5 rounds of chemotherapy, 2 cycles of induction, and 3 cycles of high-dose chemo with stem cell rescue. He has spent over 129 days in hospital.

Flynn’s mum, Claudia, was 32 weeks pregnant when they first left Townsville, and on March 2, she gave birth at the hospital next door to a baby boy, Franklin or ‘Frankie’. Flynn took to his new big brother role right away and loves playing gently with Frankie and patting him to sleep. Despite the challenges of juggling 2 under 2 in the confines of hospital rooms, Frankie has brought so much light to everyone’s lives in the darkest of days.

Their cancer journey has taken Flynn and his family far from home, and changed their lives in so many ways…

But Flynn’s trademark cheekiness, his bright personality, and his fighting spirit have been a constant through it all. During chemo treatment, he loved riding his bike down the halls of the oncology ward and waving to everyone he met along the way!

This little man has now embarked on a new phase of his journey, flying to the USA with his family to access proton radiation treatment. This is the safest form of radiation, especially given his age and the location of his tumour in the centre of his brain, but it’s not yet available in Australia. It is expected that Flynn will spend 10 weeks in Florida receiving this treatment.

Flynn, you’re a little legend… we're riding for YOU this October!