According to Steve, Kate’s “mother’s intuition” pushed them to whisk Libby to Port Macquarie Hospital, where the Wauchope family were subsequently sent home without answers following tests.

The following day she still didn’t seem right, and they took Libby to a doctor, before going back to the hospital.  

The family’s fears were confirmed that evening when an ultrasound located a mass near Libby’s liver.

“As a parent, you’re never really ready for that,” Steve said. 

“It rocked our little world.” 

Steve and Kate, high school sweethearts who grew up in Kempsey and now live in Wauchope, had to deal with the heartbreaking news that their daughter had been diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, an uncommon liver cancer that occurs in infants and children. 

Libby was flown to Westmead Children’s Hospital where she endured round after round of chemotherapy, aimed at shrinking the mass before surgery in November. 

“It made her a very sick little girl,” Steve said. 

The operation itself was understandably nerve-wracking for the parents, with surgery revealing that the mass had also attached to Libby’s stomach. 

It resulted in the bubbly two-year-old having a third of her liver and a third of her stomach removed. 

However, according to Steve, Libby “bounced right back”.

“She’s a one in a million kid the way she has handled this,” he said.

Steve praised charities Ronald McDonald House, Red Kite and the Make a Wish Foundation for their help during Libby’s sickness.

“You don’t realise the incredible work they do until you’re in a situation like us,” he said. 

Libby was even able to enjoy a party thrown in her honour by the Make A Wish Foundation on February 18. 

“She loved it,” he said. 

“She couldn’t quite fathom what was happening, she was blown away.”

Libby’s ongoing condition will now be monitored with monthly blood tests as well as an MRI several times a year.

“We just take it one step at a time from here, you never take anything for granted now,” Steve said.