By NATALIE GALLENTI-BREKALO
Caption: The Melton community banded together last weekend to raise money for a Melton mother and her family. 114364
THREE young children can now hope for a brighter future after the Melton community opened their hearts and their wallets last weekend.
Residents from across Melton turned out to offer a helping hand, donate and enjoy the activities at the Cruise for Krissy event last Saturday.
All of the money raised will go to a trust fund set up for the children of Kristina Coffey who was diagnosed with breast cancer and a thyroid tumour in March 2012.
After having a mastectomy and undergoing six cycles of chemotherapy, Ms Coffey found out she was pregnant and soon after was told the cancer had spread to her liver.
She underwent a low dose of chemo and gave birth to her little miracle, Hope, in November last year.
However, only weeks later the unthinkable happened and the Melton mother was admitted into hospital with unbearable pain and told blood clots had developed in her lungs and she would require daily injections for the rest of her life and a stronger dose of chemotherapy.
Now the brave mother is in palliative care and has been given only months to live while her children Bailey, 8, Shae, 6, and 10-week-old Hope watch on.
After seeing an emotional post on Facebook from Ms Coffey’s best friend, Melton resident Samantha Spiteri decided to host the fund-raising event last weekend.
“We’ve been inundated with people wanting to help us … who would have thought this would happen, it’s gone viral,” Ms Spiteri said.
“We’re all doing our best to help out the family, there’s such strong community spirit around Melton, even though it can get such a bad wrap sometimes.”
