'I wonder if they're next': Aussie mum's fight to raise awareness after family tragedy

Pia Whipp's view of the world is fractured. It's been this way for the last four months.In January this year, the mother-of-three said a last goodbye to her eldest daughter, Evie, who valiantly fought against a rare brain tumour. Whipps has been living a waking nightmare ever since. It's a trauma she doesn't want another family to endure."We miss her every moment of every day, but we are glad she's no longer suffering," Whipps told 9honey of her kind and caring 11-year-old daughter.READ MORE: Stunning detail in Mary and Fred's united balcony appearance"Evie fought for every single second she had on earth and her strength was unimaginable."Whipps was at home with Evie one Monday afternoon in February last year when she focused in on her daughter's face. Evie's eyes were flickering. At first, Whipps thought it was all part of a joke. She remained calm as she asked her daughter to focus on different objects in the house in different levels of light.Her mind was drawn to memories from her own childhood where her cousin who lived with cerebral palsy suffered from involuntary eye movements.After monitoring Evie for another 20 minutes without change, Whipps phoned the family's GP.Whipps expressed her concerns with the doctor, saying she felt "like the messages, signals" in the brain "were off". The GP suggested she take Evie to hospital.They spent six hours in the hospital waiting room before being ushered into an exam room where a doctor assessed Evie.The doctor asked Evie to read from a poster. She could read the wording without any issue with her right eye. However, her left eye could read just "five per cent."After further in-room tests, the doctor advised Whipps to speak to her GP about booking an MRI."I made 60 or more phone calls the next few days trying to find an MRI appointment. I'm crying to strangers on the phone, I'm highly stressed," she said.After the knock back of calls and being told her daughter's referral was "on the pile", she and her husband Josh decided their only option was to drive two hours north to Perth Children's Hospital.There, Evie waited 20 minutes to see a doctor and a scan was booked for the next day. The results were shocking. She had a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a highly-aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain tumour at the base of the brain.Whipps collapsed at the news."We were told to 'go home and make memories' as there were no treatment options and definitely no hint of a cure. A zero per cent chance of survival," she said.The family uprooted their coastal life and moved to Perth where they stayed for Evie's medical appointments. The move meant they were without an income for 11 months, with Josh leaving his FIFO job to be with Evie and the family.Yet, the kindness of strangers who donated to a crowdfunding page gave the family financial breathing room to focus on Evie. They are forever grateful for the support.Evie underwent all manner of treatment and was even accepted into a cancer trial. READ MORE: George, Charlotte and Louis face big royal first without mumThough tragically, at 3.40 pm on January 22 this year, she lost her battle with the brutal disease."Because of the trauma I have been through I now look at every child, including my own two I have left, and wonder if they're next," Whipps said.She shared the dire statistics that at least 25 children a year will suffer the same fate. "We would never ever have imagined this happening to us, so I want to speak to families and say that were this to happen to their child, they would want more than zero per cent. They would want a chance," she said."They would want some treatment options so that they could cling onto some hope. We had none."Whipps is now channelling her grief into a foundation in her daughter's name. The Evie Whipps DIPG Foundation is focused on funding research that creates treatments for DIPG."The difference between our foundation and the other DIPG Charities is that we will be looking after the kids and families going through their DIPG diagnosis," she said.Whipps calculated the family was out of pocket $80,000 in just 11 months. "We had to pay tens of thousands for takeaway food, hospital parking and petrol. We couldn't find a wheelchair-accessible vehicle to get Evie around when she lost her ability to walk or sit upright and by the time we raised enough money she passed away," she said."I refuse to see another child diagnosed in a world of no hope, so I will work tirelessly, and shove all my anger, frustration, sadness and deep grief into this foundation to help our future kids. Because it could be a child you have, or a child you know next."The foundation's first goal is to raise $520,000 for a research fellowship for the Dun Lab in Newcastle working to create DIPG treatments.Evie's father has set up a crowdfunding page on the foundation's behalf."The beautiful people of this country supported our family through the worst time of our lives and allowed Evie to experience every single thing she possibly could while she was still alive," Whipps said."We never want to see another family struggle and blindly try to navigate their way through their child's diagnosis again."FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.