By Brendan Rees
A Berwick mum had told of her “whirlwind” experience of scooping up $50,000 on Millionaire Hot Seat while helping raise money for sick kids.
Lisa Valavanis couldn’t believe her luck on the show which aired on Thursday 29 August saying “It’s still something I haven’t comes to terms with.”
She was selected to be part of the special episode for the My Room Telethon which raised money for children’s cancer charity My Room – with her win also matched by Channel Nine and donated to the charity.
Ms Valavanis was thrilled to be able to help in raising the much needed funds, explaining her son, Sam, had lost his eyes to cancer after being diagnosed as a baby.
“It did mean a lot to me … to be a part of hot seat for the My Room charity was just amazing,” she said.
Ms Valavanis said Sam, now 17, was cancer free, and despite having prosthetic eyes, had embraced life with his love of playing piano, singing, and playing goalball – a team sport designed specifically for athletes with vision impairment.
Ms Valavanis says she and her husband fought hard after a doctor initially told them “there’s nothing wrong with him.”
“We just knew something wasn’t right and we couldn’t put our finger on it,” she said.
Today, Ms Valavanis, who works at the same day unit admissions desk at Monash Children’s Hospital, says they are grateful their “intuition paid off and we just keep questioning”.
“Heath wise he is really healthy – got an amazing immune system. He’ll get a cold like the rest of us, he’ll fight it off in a day or two,” she added.
“People will sort of say to him look you shouldn’t do that and he’ll say ‘why not I can do it’,” she said.
“My husband and I have tried to do as much as we could to help other families going through similar circumstances.”
