Help the Babui family in a time of need

Sylvani Babui Jnr and family

The Tiwi Bombers Football Club (Tiwi Bombers FC) and AFL Northern Territory (AFLNT) are calling on the community to band together to help support one of their own.
 
Sylvani Babui, a Bathurst Island-based player for the Tiwi Bombers FC, his partner Therese and family, are facing a hard road ahead.
 
Their eight-year-old son, Sylvani junior, who also lives on Bathurst Island is an only child, and on Friday he was flown to the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) with a number of serious health concerns.
 
Sylvani junior underwent an MRI on Sunday, and on Monday after a series of other scans, the family was told he has Glioma Cancer in his brain stem. The cancer is inoperable, and the treatment he will receive will only help to slow down the process and growth of the tumour. Sylvani's parents have been informed that his condition is terminal.
 
Tiwi Bombers FC General Manager, Leigh Crossman has started a fundraiser on the online platform, GoFundMe with the initial fundraising target set at $10,000.
 
Any donations made through GoFundMe will be sent directly to the family to assist with sending Sylvani and his family to Brisbane so that he can receive radiotherapy treatment (once he is well enough to travel). This treatment will hopefully provide him with a better quality of life for what time remains. The family will also use some of the funds to help set up their house and make it suitably comfortable for their remaining time together.  

Leigh Crossman said the news was devastating. 

"The Tiwi Bombers Football Club and the entire Tiwi Community are heartbroken for Sylvani, Therese, Sylvani junior and their extended families. Accepting this reality as an eight-year-old child and living this reality with your child is unfathomable. I have spent the past three days with the Babui family and it has been an extremely emotional time. 

"As a football club, our priority right now is to support them in any capacity that we can. The boys are banding together as a family as always and supporting Sylvani and his family. Many Tiwi people have flown to Darwin in the past 24 hours to come and see Sylvani junior before he heads to Brisbane to begin treatment. 

"We are reaching out to the community to help financially or in whatever way they can to ensure that we can provide Sylvani junior with whatever he may need moving forward. The staff at RDH have been extremely supportive and sensitive to Sylvani junior's needs and we thank them for that. We will continue to put support in place for Sylvani and his family when they return from Brisbane," he said.

AFLNT and the Tiwi Bombers have seen the great generosity of the NT footy and business community before and are asking people to dig deep and help support the Babui family in a time of need.  

 

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