The Ruby-Rose Rainbow Fund was created in honour of Ruby-Rose Ford.
Ruby-Rose passed away at the age of nearly 3 years old on 12 December 2015 from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). The Foundation is dedicated to help fund research to find more effective and less harmful treatments for childhood leukaemia.
Ruby-Rose was diagnosed with AML at 18 months old. She then spent the next six months at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatment. She went home and 6 weeks later relapsed. With a further two rounds of chemotherapy, Ruby-Rose relapsed again and went straight into Bone Marrow Transplant. Two months post-transplant, Ruby underwent Total Body Electron Beam Radiation, the first of its kind performed on a toddler in Australia.
Ruby-Rose came home from hospital but after a total of 17 months fighting her leukaemia, she relapsed again and sadly lost her battle with cancer.
In memory of Ruby-Rose, her family has joined with the Children's Cancer Foundation to raise funds in support of children with cancer. The family has ambitious plans for their fundraising and plan to support a clinical research project investigating targeted and less harmful therapies for childhood leukaemia.
Alongside the fundraising, the Fund also aims to pool resources and information together on AML and the newest targeted therapies for paediatric leukaemia, so families who find themselves in the devastating position of having their child diagnosed with cancer have automatic access to the information.
“If we can help families who are going through what we have been through and save the life of even one child with cancer, then the work and effort of the Foundation and fundraising will be worth it. We know our daughter will be smiling down on us”. Ruby-Rose’s Parents