Helping Julian Sillett

On the 10th of October 2024, 34-year-old Julian Sillett was given the
devastating news that he had stage 4 cancer.

With minimal symptoms, this news came as a complete shock to Julian and his family. Stemming from a primary tumour in the oesophagus, scans showed that the cancer had spread throughout his body and into some of his major organs. The oncology team at Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne had to deliver the heart-breaking prognosis to Julian and Evelyn, his young wife, that patients with this type of cancer have a life expectancy of just 18 months on average. Even with treatment.

Julian and Evelyn’s beautiful boys are about to celebrate their birthdays in December along with their Dad – Little Paddy will be turning one and Alfred will be three years old. Julian and Evelyn face a very tough journey as they juggle Julian’s gruelling cancer treatment (chemotherapy and immunotherapy) along with the daily challenges that come with raising two dependent and active kids.

The heavy weight of Julian unexpectedly losing his capacity to work full-time while Evelyn is also on maternity leave has been a massive financial blow for this hard-working young family. Taking care of Julian and the two little boys means that Evelyn’s return to work plans are uncertain. Julian’s employer has been a wonderful support, allowing him to stay employed on heavily reduced hours – however this is not sufficient to support them long term and will not be sustainable as Julian’s very aggressive cancer advances further.

How can you help?

Our goal is to help Julian and Evelyn support themselves and their boys for the time that Julian has left. Julian has poured hours of DIY into their Mooroolbark house and together Julian and Evelyn have turned it into a lovely home for Alfred and Paddy. We want to help them feel as financially comfortable as we can. Please help us to ease some of the stress related to money so that they can focus their energy on the things that matter. Some of the areas that your donation will contribute to are:

• Ongoing medical costs
• Daily living expenses
• Travel costs for appointments
• Education and child-minding costs for the children

Further information

Julian’s diagnosis is stage 4 oesophageal cancer. It is a rare type of aggressive cancer and Julian’s genetic make-up also makes it more difficult to treat. Julian’s surgeon has advised him that the tumour is inoperable and there is no cure. Prior to starting chemotherapy, a stent was inserted into Julian’s oesophagus because the tumour, which is near to the opening of the stomach, was making it difficult for him to eat solid food. This stent has also come with its own challenges and causes discomfort. Julian is currently receiving first line treatment.

At the time of writing this, Julian had received 2 chemotherapy infusions which take about 5 hours in the hospital. Further supplementary oral chemotherapy is continued with tablets at home. The infusions are 21 days apart. Based on his reaction to the first 2 infusions, this gives Julian about 10 days where he feels awful and is incapable of doing much beyond sitting on the couch or lying in bed and then returning to more functionality and able to interact a little bit more with the kids and spend some quality time with family and friends until the next cycle. The immunotherapy drugs are in amongst the chemotherapy treatments and are aimed at targeting the specific make-up of Julian’s tumour.

What’s next?

Unfortunately, after meeting with numerous specialists, including the team at the world renowned Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – there is nothing further that they are able to offer Julian in the way of treatment. It is a terminal diagnosis. That being said, we live in hope every day that Julian may get more time than expected. We cross our fingers that a new treatment or study will become available.

Julian and Evelyn are still making sense of what their future looks like and they are taking these extremely difficult circumstances one day at a time. For those of you who know Julian or someone close to him, please feel free to reach out. We are all wanting to make the most of the precious time that we have with Julian and positive, happy or funny messages are encouraged.

Any donation is appreciated, and we ask that you please share this page across your social channels so that we can raise much needed funds for this beautiful young family in need.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

Julian’s family and friends.