Dom Harvey has received an incredible update from Ka'iulani Forbes, the little girl with cancer who he raised life-saving funds for by running five marathons in five days.
Ka'iulani's parents Moana and Manihira Forbes appeared on The Edge radio station's breakfast show to share the news that the money Dom helped raise for urgent treatment overseas had paid off.
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Having received "the better part of a quarter of a million dollars" in donations, as Dom pointed out, the Forbes family travelled to Barcelona to treat Ka'iulani's rare Neuroblastoma, which doesn't respond to chemotherapy.
Ka'iulani's mother Moana said that they had been given a "20 percent chance" of their daughter going into remission, but happily announced that she now had "no active cancer".
"She's got plenty of tumours in her body, in her bone, soft tissue mass, and they said the treatment has made it all mature, which basically means its dead," dad Manihira explained.
"They're hoping it's not going to grow any more. So now, it's going to stay in her body, but her body is going to keep growing as she grows up and in proportion those tumours will be smaller, and hopefully less effective on her appearance, her physical ability to move.
"Basically, she's out of the woods. We're celebrating!"
The Forbes family told the Edge hosts that one of the best moments of the ordeal was being able to tell their daughter: "No more hospital, Bubba!"
"It's been so wonderful meeting you guys, and being involved with you guys," Dom said.
"It's one of those ones where you hope for the best but you expect the worse. We're just overwhelmed at the way it's happened."
The broadcaster ran 201km over five consecutive days, raising a total of $241,236 for the family through some 4823 donations on a Givealittle page.
"We went over to help her, but really it was all of New Zealand that helped her get to this state, and help her survive," Manihira said.
"We're just so grateful to everyone, all the Edge listeners, and you guys yourselves - what you put yourself through to help our little girl here," he told Dom.
Moana said the family counted themselves as "one of the lucky ones", having known other parents who travelled overseas to seek treatment for their children and were forced to return without them.
"We are forever grateful for everyone who's helped out, because you've literally saved our girl. We're just so blessed," she said.
Ka'iulani will continue to have three-monthly MRI scans to monitor her condition, but should not need any further operations.
Newshub.
