The look on the face of little Jax Dixon when he saw his new "secret hideaway" cubby - a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation - was, literally, priceless.
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"No amount of money could achieve the things they do," his mother Kylie said.
Jax dreamed of the treehouse style cubby throughout a bed-ridden cancer journey that began in May 2017, when he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour at only two and a half.
"He was quite unwell for about two months," said Kylie.
"He kept getting a swollen lymph node at back of head, so I took him to several GPs and paediatricians over about eight weeks, and they kept saying he was fine.
"I'm a nurse and I knew he wasn't okay.
"It ended up being a tumour that had started in skull and grew into his brain, taking up a quarter of his head, thus the vomiting, mood swings, and pain."
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Kylie and her husband Adam eventually scored an appointment at the Haematology Clinic at Westmead Children's Hospital.
"We went to the apointment and basically never left," Kylie said.
"The following day they did a lymph node biopsy, which I'd been asking the GPs to do, but they were saying 'he'll have a scar, you don't want to do that'.
"After that, they did a bone marrow biopsy and that's when we were told he had cancer - they didn't know what type at that point."
It was, she recalls, the worst day of their lives.
"Our whole world just fell to bits, and it only got worse from there," Kylie said.
"It was such a rare type of cancer that they weren't sure how to treat it."
Known as malignant melanotic neuroectodermal tumour of infancy, the Dixons were told he would need to have brain surgery to remove it.
They were told Jax would probably not last for more than a year.
"It normally happens in very young babies, not usually two year-olds," Kylie said.
"And it normally happens in the jaw, a very distinctive black tumour that you can see, and very aggressive.
"When we first concerned about things happening, that could have been when it started, but we were just fobbed off."
The surgery successfully removed 70 per cent of it, and seven rounds of intense chemotherapy followed.
"Surprisingly, it got rid of rest of tumour," Kylie said.
"We then liaised with people all around the world and decided we'd do a tandem bone marrow transplant, following the neuroblastoma protocol."
The surgeons harvested Jax's own bone marrow stem cells, performed two rounds of very intensive chemotherapy, then returned his stem cells to aid his recovery.
The whole process took almost two years and today Jax is still in remission and his oncologist is very happy, but the journey cost Jax, and his family, in every way.
He started kindy this year but before that he had a lot of intensive therapy - he couldn't walk, couldn't talk very well. He missed out on so many of those important years.
- Kylie Dixon
"He started kindy this year but before that he had a lot of intensive therapy - he couldn't walk, couldn't talk very well," Kylie said.
"He missed out on so many of those important years.
"When they learn to do all that stuff, he was stuck in a hospital bed. Only Adam and I could see him. His sisters saw him occasionally, but he had no immune system.
"He has hearing loss from the chemo.
"And Adam and I didn't work at all for two years."
Jax had been granted a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation way back when he was originally diagnosed, but had been too unwell to act on it.
But the Foundation came through with the cubby last Sunday, which was built on the Dixon's recently-purchased property in Yanderra.
The family plan to move from Spring Farm into their new home this coming week.
"He's always wanted a tree house," siad Kylie.
"When we bought the property at Yanderra, he kept saying, 'when will I get my tree house?'
"He'd dreamed up this elaborate tree house - IT had to go through the tree, had to have a slide, and fairy lights in the tree, and a flag, and a lock for the door so only children can get in.
"It gave us all something to look forward to."
She said the new home, and the longed-for cubby, signifies that the family had made it through the toughest of times, and added that Make-A-Wish is "an amazing charity".
"They do amazing things for these children who are critically unwell, who don't have a lot to look forward to," she said.
"They go through hell, and there's only so much as a parent you can give them."
And with 800 children waiting for their wish, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is looking for support to make other sick kids' dreams come true. You can donate here.
