Emma Walsh was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia in 2022 at just 11 years old. Her parents, Brendan and Alex were told their beautiful daughter only had weeks to live. Fast forward to 2025, and Emma has undergone an intense course of treatment and is now on the road to recovery including physio to learn to walk again after high doses of steroids robbed her of her movement.

It’s an incredible story, and it gave Emma and her family the motivation to start a charity called ‘Emma’s Warriors’ to help other young people experiencing long stays in hospital. We were blown away by Emma’s Warriors so that’s why they are this month’s @ The Coalface and Complete Parts Community Gift.

“During my time in hospital I found out what makes hospital more comfortable. I met a lot of teens and tweens and there wasn’t much support for them going through similar things to me,” said Emma.

Her mum Alex said after spending so much time in hospital it became clear what made their stay that little bit more bearable, so they created a care kit.

“It has things we found made the hospital stay a little easier. A coloured bed sheet, a white noise machine to block out all the chitter chatter in the hallway and fairy lights to have a shade in between fluorescent and pitch black!

“The Amazon firestick was a gamechanger, oncology kids often get a room of their own so you can plug the firestick in and watch your own Disney and Netflix shows. There’s also a bath towel, a fidget toy, batteries, a Yeti cup, iTunes gift card and moisturiser.

“We’re always adding to it. Recently we added a cutlery kit because the bamboo cutlery you get at the hospital just isn’t very good,” laughed Alex.

The care packs are distributed to the patients via social workers, but Alex said they do hear some stories.

“There was a little girl who was really scared of her hospital bed, she refused to get in. The hospital team gave her one of our care packs and they put the floral sheets on the bed and she apparently hopped straight in. She just associated the white, clinical bed with surgery and now with pretty sheets, it became her bed.”

Emma said they have now been able to expand the charity beyond the care kits.

“We hosted Emma’s Warriors Day at Cahill Oval last year with Lakes United. We raised a lot of money which has allowed us to help even more.

“We’ve given out a lot of money for financial support for anything from rent to psychology appointments.

“We’ve been able to help other charities, like Ronald McDonald House. If they can’t source something they call us, and we can usually help.

“My sister Belle is also starting packs for siblings – they don’t really get attention during that time when their sibling is in hospital, so we wanted to do something for them,” said Emma.

Alex said they are constantly blown away by the community’s generosity.

“Newcastle is such a beautiful community. We’re in a wonderful position where we have met so many people along our journey so we can be that connection to help others. Newcastle just steps up when someone is in need.”

Emma is excited for what’s next for Emma’s Warriors, but also to go back to school full time this year.

“I’ll be going into year nine. I’m looking forward to being back at school and seeing my friends every day!”

Alex is determined the family will have a much more normal year in 2025… well as normal as it can get!

“As a family it keeps us super busy, but once you see how much it means to people you can’t turn around and say ‘no we’re done now’ because we’ve seen how much of a difference it makes.”

For more info on Emma’s Warriors and to donate head to: https://emmaswarriors.com.au/