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If you are able to help support Nicole, please click here to make a tax deductible donation. All donations received will contribute Nicole receiving a good quality of life with her family at home.
August 2011
City to Surf - Running for Nicole - Thank you
Recently Nicole's twin sister Fiona ran the 13km City2Surf Run in Sydney for Nicole. Over $1100 was raised thanks to sponsorship for Fiona.
Fiona felt that she could keep running after the race and she would like to thank everybody for their support.
All funds raised assist in Nicole receiving much needed medical supplies.
Feature Article on Nicole in the Sunday Mail
Check out the article about Nicole in the Sunday Mail which was published on 10th July 2011.
City to Surf - Running for Nicole
Fiona, Tracy and Lisa are walking/running the 14 km Sun Herald City2Surf from Sydney City to Bondi Beach on 14th August 2011.
If you would like to join the team please register with the city to surf website and enter as part of a team "running for Nicole".
If you would like to sponsor the team, you are welcome to make a donation here.
McKenzie Comer's Concert for Nicole
What an amazing young lady 14 year old McKenzie Comer is.
With the help of her parents, McKenzie recently held a concert for Nicole Tierney, with local talent performing at All Saints School to a crowd of over 100 guests.
McKenzie raised an amazing amount of $14,000 on the night, which will be used by Nicole's family to buy a special walking machine for Nicole.
Thanks so much for your support McKenzie - you are an extremely caring person, and our adopted Dream Worker.
June 2011 Update
Hi Everyone,
Sorry it has taken so long to provide you all with our latest news, but I am sure you are aware how busy it would be around here. Lisa was able to come up over the recent school holidays, which was lovely for us all. We even managed a quick outing for lunch; it was so nice just to sit for a brief moment. The boys kept us all on our toes over Easter; they bring so much love and joy to our lives.
Nicole’s health has been really good over the last couple of months which is wonderful for us all. She has returned to her normal weight and is maintaining it.
Some news about all the progress we have been making. As I mentioned in our last update, Nicole’s therapy room had begun. It is well on the way and it will be amazing. We will never be able to thank the wonderful team at Coral Homes; the space will be invaluable to continue with Nicole’s care. In every aspect of this process the fantastic tradies have been very aware of Nicole’s situation and have ensured minimal dust, minimal disruption to our lives, and if any of you have had renovations you would be aware how much it takes over the household!
We have also had some further excitement and have a car now that allows us to take Nicole out. Our first attempt at getting Nicole in the car was a bit of a challenge, but with lots of determination we got there. We had our first adventure going to visit our dear friends Glenda and Wayne; they live at Clagiraba at the base of Mt Tamborine. They have horses and dogs and we had a beautiful day by their pool. Nicole got up close and personal with the animals which she seemed to enjoy.
Our other news is we have got the walker for Nicole that we have been waiting for. That has only arrived this week, so still very early days and lots of adjustments need to be made and I will let you all know how it goes.
We have to give a huge thanks to Rob, Carol and McKenzie Comer who you would know from the Dreamworkers site. McKenzie has the most beautiful voice and we have been privileged to have her come and sing for Nicole. We are so excited about a concert that the Comers have put on to help raise money and awareness of Nicole’s story. The concert was held on 4th June and further details can be found on the Dreamworkers site. This was a fantastic night and we thank you all for supporting not only Nicole but also the beautiful McKenzie and the other artists who performed. Rob has been out doing letterbox drops in rain, hail or shine. We will always be grateful for their support.
All of Nicole’s beautiful friends keep in touch, send messages and visit when able. This is really comforting to us all.
Thank you all for your continued support and love it really does make a difference knowing you are all out there sending love and best wishes.
Jen
February 2011 Update
Hi All,
The madness of Christmas is over, we had a wonderful time, having Nicole home with us, it was Ryan & Beau’s first Christmas with some awareness, so as you can imagine our house was chaos. They are such a delight and bring such joy to us all. It was lovely having all the family here and enjoying the special time. Obviously with Christmas some services shut down so we had a bit more free time without Physio and the like.
Nicole has had some up’s and downs, we did some hydrotherapy once a week for a number of weeks, to change up Nicole’s routine. At first she was very hesitant in the water but she soon settled into it. We have now returned to the normal routine and continue working with her leg to get it straightened. She has started a course of Botox which goes into her hamstring to help release it and hopefully will help with the straightening.
She had been unwell for about a week, and was not interested in eating or drinking which was very worrying and stressful for us all, we think she has some issues with her teeth, so we have a dental appointment this week. Hopefully she will go ok with that. Nicole had lost a bit of weight but is back to a healthier weight now which is so much better.
The other exciting news is that Jono has returned from his trip, Nicole is very happy to have him home.
The renovations start this week on Nicole’s therapy room. Thanks to the wonderful team at Coral Homes Big Hearts Foundation. We have to thank our brother in-law Graham who first bought Nicole’s situation to Kylie and the rest of the Coral Home family. Everyone is so considerate of our plight and the importance of keeping dust at bay for Nicole’s health. All of the workmen are just wonderful people giving up their time to help us and Nicole. It will be so wonderful to have this space for Nicole to continue her therapy, have room to move and have some space to store all of the extra equipment that we have at home.
Sorry that sometimes I take so long in getting out the updates but I know that you all understand how little spare time we have.
Will keep you all updated as to the progress of the Therapy Room and photos.
Thank you to you all for your continued support and prayers for Nicole and our family.
Also a special Thank you to my wonderful sisters Maureen and Paula for all their wonderful and ongoing help. They give up so much of their spare time to come (from Lismore) stay and help to give us a break.
Warmest regards
Jen
Bunnings Sausage Sizzle for Nicole
Friends of Nicoles held a sausage sizzle at Bunnings in November 2010 for Nicole.
A lot of sausages were sizzled on the day and over $1,700 was raised to help buy Nicole’s therapy bike.
Thanks so much to Summer Hodge and her band of “Adopted Dream Workers” volunteers who worked tirelessly to raise such a great amount of money for Nicole.
Update on Nicole - January 2011
Nicole is continuing with her hard work on rehabilitation therapy. However the really exciting news is that Coral Homes (link) have come on board to complete the renovations with the support of their many suppliers.
Operations Manager, Kylie Wood said, 'Once completed, the renovations will allow Nicole a place to do her exercises, and also to have a shower area.'
Over the years Coral Homes have been involved in many charitable projects with wonderful help from our generous suppliers, tradespeople and staff. With the forming of the Big Hearts Foundation, we thought it best to look at our extended Coral family to find our first project under this new Foundation and I was privileged to meet beautiful Nicole and her amazing parents Jennifer and Steve through one of our long-standing staff members Graham who is Nicole’s uncle. To be able to assist this family and have such a large positive impact on their day to day living is so worthwhile and has already been an emotional journey so far for everyone involved at Coral Homes, including myself personally. The overwhelming offers of support from our suppliers and tradespeople has also been amazing and we are very grateful for their commitment.
The planning phase is complete and we have building approval now, so once we have sourced all materials we will be in a position to start building the extension. This is where the excitement begins. I can’t wait to see the final result with Nicole being able to go through the hard work of her physical rehabilitation away from the sanctuary of her personal bedroom space, keeping the two areas very separate and non-associated and also Nicole being able to join her family and friends alfresco style for outdoor gatherings with the access we are going to be able to provide in the outdoor area too.
Update - December 2010
Hi all
Life remains incredibly busy in the Tierney household as you could imagine. Nicole has had some changes to her physio routines we are getting her into hydrotherapy once a week. This has been really exciting but as you can imagine, a lot to do to get her organised. Her first week, you could tell she was very nervous to her changed routine, heading off in a cab, then to the pool. When we first got her in she was very unsure as to what was going on, but when she realised she was safe she relaxed into it. It was lovely to see her being weightless. This has continued for a few weeks now.
All of her other physio continues, and we keep working on building her strength to stand, she does this so much better now than when we first started, it is really lovely seeing the progress that our wonderful Nicole continues to make. The next step that we are now waiting for is another frame to arrive and the intent of this frame is to assist Nicole with walking, she has been fitted for the frame, it is just a waiting game till it arrives.
Nicole has had a couple of further urinary infections which slows her progress a bit but hopefully we have seen the last of them for 2010.
I have had a couple of days away in Sydney to spend some time to see our other daughter Lisa who lives down there. It is always hard to leave Nicole but it is so important that we maintain some normality for our other girls, as well.
Nicole’s dear friends Summer and Ian who recently married ran a BBQ at Bunnings at Ashmore for Nicole. They spent the entire day cooking sausage sandwiches; we think Ian has decided to give up his day job of plumbing to become a full time sausage sizzler as he enjoyed it so much. We can not thank them and their gang of supporters enough for the wonderful effort they put in for Nicole. Also to thank Deb from Dream Workers for organising the 40kg’s of Sausages and to my brother Geoff for providing the 15kgs of Onions. WOW!!!!!!
Vision Gym on the Gold Coast has been also supporting Nicole, they had a weight loss challenge and some of the people sponsored Nicole they also had a beach run and a boxing night with some proceeds going to Nicole as well. Thank you very much EJ from our family for helping Nicole.
In fact I don’t think I have previously mentioned all of Nicole’s wonderful friends, including Jono who is away overseas but forever has Nicole in his heart.
They have always been so supportive to us all, not only with their wonderful fund raising efforts but the constant emotional support they continue to provide to both Nicole and the rest of our family. It is so comforting to realise how beautiful all of these people are, the love that they give Nicole is a testament to what a wonderful girl Nicole is. It is such a joy to us all the time and the love you all provide to us all constantly, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Young Care has also launched their Xmas Appeal and we are happy to support them also for the wonderful work they do. Nicole and I had a photo taken for their Xmas Brochure, it has been distributed throughout the community to raise funds for young people trying to get out of Nursing homes. Nicole comes under the word HOPE a word we have always clung to. If anyone has any small amount of money spare this Xmas this is a wonderful cause.
Another person that we would like to thank is Michael Woods for helping Nicole with extra Physio we think that you are amazing and we love the response you get with Nicole.
Our beautiful grandsons Ryan and Beau turned 1 in October they are wonderful and we love them so much. We are looking forward to a wonderful Xmas with them.
Finally Nicole, Steve, Lisa, Fiona and I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Deb and all the team at DreamWorkers for all that they have done this year for Nicole and our family and a special THANK YOU to Deb for all your tireless work, support and friendship you have given us, it has been amazing.
Happy Christmas to all
Love Jen
Update - September 2010
Hi Everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since my last update, but as Deb has mentioned we have had some major upheavals over the last couple of months with Steve having a heart attack. Thankfully he was at work at the time and they got him straight to the hospital and treatment. He is recovering well, but as you would imagine life around here has become even more chaotic.
Since our last update, the 7PM Project aired and we were really happy with the way they handled the story. Nicole has been working really hard at her physio and has been making progress. We have been working on her strength and with the help of a new frame we have been getting her upright. It has been amazing to watch as we now get her standing for short periods of time without the straps, and only minimal support for balance. To see her standing on her own is just so overwhelming.
We have a wonderful new doctor now who comes to our home to see Nicole. He has been very proactive in her care and we are finally over all the dramas with her UTI’s which just makes it so much better for Nicole.
We are also really excited about Nicole’s response to those who come to visit her. Everyone who comes over comments about how much more aware they find Nicole, it gives us a real sense that our hard work is paying off. For example, just last week our dear friends Graham and Carol took Steve and I away for a few days break – a wonderful and much needed trip. When we returned Nicole was very emotional and showed clear signs that she knew we’d been gone. It was upsetting for us to think we’d caused her any distress but it was amazing to realise that she obviously has a highly functioning memory and recognised our absence and return.
One of the most amazing things of late is that our wonderful daughter Fiona nominated us for a Pride of Australia Medal in the Care and Compassion category. It was so touching that she did this, let alone the fact that we WON!! We travelled to Brisbane for the presentation and were thrilled with the recognition, and with the support we got in the lead up from friends and family.
Hopefully my updates will become more regular again – meaning of course that I’ll have nothing but good things to report! Thank you all again for your continued support and care.
Warmest regards,
Jen
Pride of Australia Awards
A big congratulations to Jen and Steve Tierney for winning the Pride of Australia Medal for their category of Care & Compassion for the care that they have given to their daughter Nicole.
Click here for more information about the Pride of Australia Awards.
Vision Personal Training Mermaid Beach Help Nicole
Thanks must go to EJ Barnes and his team at Vision Personal Training at Mermaid Beach for their fundraising efforts for Nicole.
Thanks to their clients, and the training team $1,000 was raised to help Nicole during a recent weight loss challenge and fun run.
McKenzie Comer sings for Nicole
Local talented teenager McKenzie Comer has been a big supporter of Dream Workers for the last couple of years.
McKenzie recently asked me if she could sing for Nicole, so
a date was organized and McKenzie visited Nicole last week.
Jen tells me that Nicole listened intently the whole time that McKenzie sang.
McKenzie was so moved by meeting Nicole, that she is currently organizing a new video featuring Nicole, to add to her vast You Tube collection of hits. McKenzie is also asking people to help support Nicole by donating to Nicole's Appeal on the Dream Workers website.
To see McKenzie's latest video on You Tube, click here
Friends of Nicole's Rally to support Nicole with a Raffle
Friends of Nicole's, Lara and Amanda, wanted to know how they could best support Nicole. So after much thought, they decided to run a raffle, and bought the first prize themselves to donate.
The raffle received so much support from the Gold Coast Community, especially once Carly Wheatley came on board to help.
Carly has never met Nicole, but felt that she wanted to help support Nicole and her family. Carly walked the streets week after week, door knocking and sold over $2,000 of tickets!
The end result was that $4166 was raised for Nicole's Appeal. An amazing amount, from what started as a simple idea to help a friend in need.
Thanks must be given to the following businesses for their support for the raffle:
The Titan's football club
Omeros Brothers Seafood Restaurant at Marina Mirage
Event Cinemas
Inkspot Printing
Copirite Design
Inner Goddess Salon raises money for Nicole
Helen Jeffries of the Inner Goddess salon at Broadbeach Waters, very generously donated $1,000 of her takings at the Salon for the month of March to Nicole's Appeal.
Helen picked up a flier about Nicole at her local Blockbuster video store and was so moved by her plight that she decided to donate 40% of takings from her salon for the month of March.
Help those that help Dream Workers.
For more details and to book call Helen on 0414 509 143
Local Youth Rally to help Nicole
A group of young ladies from the "Get Set For Work Program" which is run by SCISCO Career pathways volunteered to help Nicole's family any way that they could.
So on a rainy day last month the girls went to Nicole's home and worked hard on gardening for Nicole's family.
The Get Set For Work Program is an alternative learning education program for young ladies.
The program is for 18 weeks with the girls completing a Certificate I in Workplace Education and a Certificate I in Business and/or Retail.
The girls participate in Community Work and do Work Experience in career's they choose. The course covers motivation, self esteem, gratitude, positive attitude's and building healthy relationships with all types of people. The girls learn to communicate better with their family/ friends and colleagues.
The experience the girls have gained from meeting Nicole and Jen in allowing them into their lives has been invaluable. The girls have come away with a better understanding of their own lives, and the capabilities that they have. They are indebted to Nicole and Jen.
The girls are an amazing group and facilitator Kathy is very proud of the efforts. They have come such a long way and in just 8 weeks they have grown and bettered themselves. SCISCO would like to thank all that have helped the girls and those that will continue to support SCISCO.
If any employer is looking for junior staff, traineeships/apprenticeships, or just willing to give a young person a go Kathy would love to hear from you.
Kathy Hadley can be contacted on: 0417 525 073
Recreate Yourself Beauty Day
On February 3rd, Recreate Yourself, a beauty and hair salon at West Burleigh, held a special day for Nicole.
All money taken on the day for all therapies was donated to Nicole's Appeal.
Catherine, manager of Recreate Yourself, was thrilled with the response to the appeal. The salon was fully booked for the day and Catherine had to turn bookings away.
Over $650 was raised for Dream Workers, to go towards Nicole's Appeal.
Please support businesses that support Dream Workers.
Bookings to Recreate Yourself - Hair and Beauty Salon can be made on: 1300 599 773 or log onto www.ry.com.au/salon
Article that featured in the Courier Mail on Saturday 22nd May 2010
Click here for article details, about the problem for families caring for their loved one's at home, and the lack of government support.
Nicole and her family featured on the 7pm Project on 28th June 2010
Click here for more details on this story about the plight of carers in the community
Update on Nicole June 2010
Hi all
Thought I better get another update put together for you all. Another very hectic month in the Tierney household.
This month has had both up’s and downs, we have had Nic back in hospital for a few days with urinary sepsis, this was very traumatic for us all. We have discovered how difficult it is to get a GP to come and do home visits. However after a few days of IV antibiotics we were able to get her home again. This unfortunately slowed down her physio and she did lose some weight during this process. After a few weeks of perseverance she is back to her normal routine again and the weight has been regained.
On a brighter note, we had the race day for Nic, what a wonderful event. Our daughter Lisa made it up from Sydney and Fiona was able to leave her twins with Steve and my sister for the day. We all had a fantastic time, being surrounded by such wonderful people. The energy in the room was just what we needed to re-charge our batteries after having been through the hospital visit. The support that we have been offered by such a wonderful group of people just gives us the strength to keep moving forward. We got to play games and laugh, it was just joyous.
The physio is coming on really well, we are now getting Nic on the floor and working on her building up her strength in her lower limbs, the next huge step will be to try and get her standing up so we can work on transfers from bed to chair. Extremely hard work, but it is so rewarding when we see some progress.
Also we got to celebrate Fiona and Nicole’s 30th birthday. This was difficult on some levels but also a great achievement as well. We had a small gathering at our house and had a lovely night; Nic spent the entire time in her chair and was surrounded by such love. This was the most people she had been around in over a year and she handled it really well.
And just to round out our month we had the people from the 7PM Project come and interview us last week One of the stars of the show Charlie Pickering came himself to interview us he was a really lovely guy and obviously sympathetic to our plight. This is about the lack of services available to families that are caring for loved ones at home. They were with us for over 3 hours. It is due to be aired on Monday 28th at obviously 7PM on channel 10. Hope it comes through well about the wonderful support that we have received from all of you.
Thanks again to everyone for all the amazing support
Jen Tierney
Nicole working hard on her rehab. It's fantastic to see Nicole gaining strength every week, and holding her own head up. A huge feat when you have been laying in bed for over a year.
Update on Nicole May 2010
Just a quick update on Nicole’s progress, she has been home now for nearly 4 months, that is so hard to comprehend, our days just seem to roll into each over.
Nic is doing really well she is having physio 5 days a week; this involves putting her on her tilt table and getting her upright. Initially this was a huge worry as she had not been upright for so long, her blood pressure sky-rocketed but after a week or so that stabilised. Her physio sessions need at least three others if not more to help and we can not thank everyone enough for all of the time and effort they are putting in for Nicole. One of the main focuses is to work on her cognition and help her be able to communicate with us. We are getting some good responses with this, but still a very long road ahead. We are also working towards her being able to support her own weight so we can transfer her from chair to bed and so on.
Nicole’s wheelchair has arrived, it was such an exciting day it has a hot pink frame which suits Nic perfectly. She has been able to go outside for a walk with her Dad, the first time in over a year. With it’s arrival and that of the tilt table our house does appear to be getting smaller so our next big project we think is to try and renovate so we can have an equipment room and be able to focus all of her care from that one space.
We have been so touched from the support of everyone; we had the girls from Sisco come and work in the garden which was wonderful and a special thanks to Kathy Hadley, and the businesses such as Fish Pot Cafe, Recreate Yourself and Helen Jeffries from Inner Goddess Salon for raising money and providing us that support which we can not thank you enough with words. The fact that complete strangers are willing to offer this for Nicole gives us such strength to continue.
We are really excited about the up coming Race Day our daughter Lisa will be coming up from Sydney to attend, and my sister Paula will come up to stay to help look after Nic. So Lisa, Fiona and I will be able to be at the races to share this exciting day with everyone.
Sorry it takes so long for the updates but as I am sure you can imagine our days are very full and time does seem to just get away.
Once again thank you to everyone for the continued support and especially to Deb for the tireless work she puts in for not just Nicole but all of the beneficiaries of her care.
Our dream continues to unfold and I will keep you all up to date so you are all part of this journey
Thanks again
Jen Tierney
Update on Nicole's Progress April 2010
I just wanted to give an update on Nicole’s progress since she has been home. It is coming up to 9 weeks since we got our beautiful Cole home.
Each night Steve and I set our mobiles to get up to check Nicole. We have to ensure that she is covered and also to make she has not covered her face with the pillows.
It was such an emotional time for us all when Nic first came home however we have all got a routine going which is incredibly busy but working for us all. At times the routine gets disrupted by outside issues, such as services coming to assist with programs, however the small changes can change the entire focus of our days. However as each visit occurs we just work to getting back on our routine as this is essential for us to achieve all we need to allow Nicole to continue to move forward.
Nicole has been making some good progress. We have been having physio coming in on a regular basis so we can get Nic ready for her wheelchair that will be arriving soon. We are doing a lot of massage and exercises so she can learn to sit up in her chair. This will allow us to be able to take her out of the house at times.
Her room is full of the things that she has always loved. It was really important to get all of these positive things close to Nicole as they always inspired and gave her the courage to keep moving forward in her life and the battles she faced. The minute you enter her room you are met by the beauty and positive energy that would always surround Nic. Everyone has commented on what a wonderful environment this is, for Nic to continue to heal in.
We have also been having success with getting her in her recliner chair. Whilst she is in the chair she can come into the lounge room or the dining room and share time with us all. It has also been lovely now because Nic’s twin Fiona and her twin boys can come and share time with us all, allowing the boys time to share and get to know their beautiful aunt. It is still very early days and the journey has just begun, but the support that we have received from Dream Workers allows us to keep the dream unfolding.
We will keep you all updated as our journey continues.
Thanks to all
Jen & Steve Tierney
Update 4th February 2010
We are happy to report that Nicole came home from hospital last Thursday 28th January. Her family are ecstatic to have Nicole back home with them, and report that Nicole is smiling a lot more now that she is home.
We need the Gold Coast's support for necessities for Nicole, such as a wheelchair.
Nicole's parents are providing 24 hour care for Nicole and even have to get up every 1 1/2 hours to check on Nicole on a roster system, while still both working during the day. They no longer have time to tend to their garden, so if anyone has time, gardening support would be very much appreciated. If you are able to help out call Deb Smith on 0412 389 607.
Nicole is also in need of phsysical therapy, so if you have any experience in physiology or physiotherapy, all offers of help are well received. At the moment, Nicole's family have no special mode of transport for Nicole, so any help would need to be given at their home.
Thank you for all of your support for Nicole,
Deb Smith
Thank you to the following People/Businesses for your support of Nicole:
