'He gives me hope and courage': Boddington teenager shaves her head for her three-year-old brother battling Leukaemia

"Your child has cancer."

Boddington boy, Jamie, was just two years old when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in September last year.

But his mother, Nicky Sherlock, remembers it like it was yesterday.

"Life changes in that moment," she said.

"It is one of the hardest things any parent will ever hear.

"It kind of stops and changes every living part of your being.

"You all of a sudden drop everything and become solely 100 per cent focused on your child - so much so that even your other children become second to what is happening around you."

Just months earlier, the happy-go-lucky toddler was running around the family's 40 acre farm in Boddington.

He loved collecting the chickens' eggs, bottle feeding his lamb Coco and playing in the sandpit with his diggers and trucks.

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"He was so full of life - a very placid little boy," Nicky said.

"Once he got sick, he got to the point where he couldn't walk. He had high temperatures, a loss of appetite and a sore tummy.

"After we took him to the hospital, Jamie and I haven't been able to go home since."

The Leukaemia Foundation provided Nicky and Jamie with a place to stay in Perth where they have been since Jamie's diagnosis.

With her husband Les working in Boddington and keeping the family farm going, Nicky's oldest daughter Jess has had to move in with her grandparents permanently for her first year at high school.

"Because children are more susceptible, they need to live within an hour of the Perth Children's Hospital so that's why we haven't been able to go home - not even for a quick visit in between treatments," Nicky said.

"His blood count is low and he can't go anywhere and is extremely susceptible to getting infections and catching anything that goes around.

"With the sudden coronavirus that is around, it puts me even more on edge with him being so vulnerable."

Nicky described the last few months of treatments as "a whirlwind of emotions that just do not ever stop".

Jamie has undergone various operations including lumbar punctures, bone marrow trephines and bone marrow aspirates and has had "huge amounts" of chemotherapy, drugs, MRIs, EEGs and ECGs.

"Holding your child down screaming and looking at you to rescue them from agony is so damn hard and heartbreaking, I can't begin to describe it," Nicky said.

"It's been scary for him but I call him our little Aussie trooper.

"He gets up every day and always has this beautiful smile on his face - even on his darkest, most horrible days, he'll find a smile and that's what gives me the hope and courage to keep plodding along."

And it seems that special and genuine kindness runs in the family.

In March, Jamie's older sister Jess donated her beautiful auburn hair for the World's Greatest Shave and raised more than $5000 for the Leukaemia Foundation.

Nicky said her 13-year-old daughter had a "heart of gold".

"She's such a loving, giving girl, very professional and I'm so proud of her," she said.

"She wanted to do it before we even knew Jamie had cancer but then when Jamie got diagnosed, she wanted to do it for her little brother as a way to support him.

"She said to me 'it's just hair Mum - I can just grow it back but they can't'.

"Our little Boddington community stood right behind her and did fundraisers for her - it's only a tiny community but they have done anything and everything and it's been amazing to have that support."

That community support has been welcomed by Nicky and her family, who have had one of their most stressful and financially difficult years yet.

Nicky said it had been a tough few months but they still had plenty of fight left in them for the road ahead.

"Even once we are given the all-clear to return home, it's 18 months of chemo at home and monthly visits back to the Children's Hospitals and three-monthly checks," she said.

"I had to quit my full-time job to care for Jamie and to lose the income has had a huge impact on our family. It's been a massive financial stress.

"It's still a very long road to travel."

To donate to the family's Go Fund Me page, visit www.gofundme.com/f/help-jamie-battle-leukemia.