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Speaker 1: About two weeks ago, I got contacted by some members

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Speaker 1: of the Nightcliff Dragons rugby league club. They wanted to

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Speaker 1: let me know that they have an awesome little girl

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Speaker 1: who's part of their rugby league family, and she's going

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Speaker 1: through a pretty tough time at the moment. Her name

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Speaker 1: is Melia Mulholland and she is fighting brain cats and

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Speaker 1: now joining me on the line right now is Tracy,

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Speaker 1: her grandma. Good morning to you, Tracy, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now Tracy. Hopefully I've pronounced her name correctly, because I

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Speaker 1: know that in a video that Reyese Walsh had done

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Speaker 1: for your beautiful GRANDDAUGHTERY.

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Speaker 2: Got it wrong.

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Speaker 3: Everybody gets it everybody. It's okay now, I tell you

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Speaker 3: to pick that up quite quickly.

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Speaker 2: I bet she did.

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Speaker 1: I've gone and had a look at some of the

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Speaker 1: videos that your wonderful family has posted and some of

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Speaker 1: what your gorgeous granddaughter is going through.

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Speaker 2: Can you tell me a little bit about her?

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Speaker 3: Firstly, she is such a strong little girl, but she

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Speaker 3: just she never complained. She worries about everybody else. She's

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Speaker 3: braver than ten men. Really, she just goes through it

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Speaker 3: and just takes it all in her stride. Just worrying

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Speaker 3: that everyone else is feeling bad.

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Speaker 1: Now, I have been told that she's funny, she's cheeky,

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Speaker 1: she can be a little bit shy.

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Speaker 2: But she is a beautiful, kind little girl.

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Speaker 3: Yeah she is. She is sassy as hell.

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Speaker 2: That's how you want your granddaughter, right.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, no one's going to put it over her at all.

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Speaker 1: Now, can you tell me a little bit about what

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Speaker 1: Malia's going through at this point?

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Speaker 3: Okay, So her diagnosis was a dulablastoma, which is a

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Speaker 3: brain cancer in the throe them. So she's had surgery,

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Speaker 3: she's had radiation, seventeen rounds of radiation, which she lost

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Speaker 3: her hair then, which is not that it bothers her,

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Speaker 3: so she doesn't have to go through that. Now. She's

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Speaker 3: currently just finished round one chemo. And I actually call

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Speaker 3: it poison because it's just horrible. It's just the medicine

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Speaker 3: they give you has to be counteracted for medicine to

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Speaker 3: save you.

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Speaker 4: It's that bad.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And look, you know, I think anybody that's seen

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Speaker 1: an adult go through it understands how difficult it is.

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Speaker 1: But then to have a little girl going through that

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Speaker 1: treatment is it would be so incredibly tough.

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Speaker 3: It is just horrible. It is. You know, like one

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Speaker 3: of the medications they give you damage is your bladder,

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Speaker 3: so they have to give you medication to save your bladder.

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Speaker 3: It's just it's just it's not right for little kids.

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Speaker 3: It's not right for anybody.

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Speaker 4: But it's kids.

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Speaker 3: Don't desert that.

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Speaker 1: No, they truly don't. Tracy, tell me how old is Malia.

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Speaker 3: Malia's nine. She turned nine in Ronald McDonald house.

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Speaker 4: This year, so she's yeah, she's still.

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Speaker 3: She's an old nine, sprightly nine.

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Speaker 1: And I would imagine you know, it's been it's been

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Speaker 1: really tough for your family in terms of that travel,

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Speaker 1: having to go into state and for her going through

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Speaker 1: what is incredibly tough treatment.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is very hard. I mean our flights, mine

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Speaker 3: and my grandson's flights were anonymously paid for this trip,

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Speaker 3: which was so awesome. The traveling is hard because we

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Speaker 3: all work in Darwin, so it's a little bit difficult.

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Speaker 3: And I'm casual, so I only get.

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Speaker 4: Paid for what I work.

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Speaker 3: So's it's tough being so far away from home. It's

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Speaker 3: just so far.

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Speaker 1: Now you have there is a go fund me page

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Speaker 1: that has has been started in an effort to support

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Speaker 1: your family. Through what is such a tough time, and

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Speaker 1: I know that you've had so much support. I was

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Speaker 1: actually contacted about you guys by the wonderful crew at

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Speaker 1: the Nightcliff Dragons Rugby League club and they.

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Speaker 4: Are awesome and awesome.

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Speaker 1: Well, and they told me as well that her brother

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Speaker 1: plays in the under twelves, and I understand that last

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Speaker 1: month they dedicated again to Malaia.

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Speaker 3: Yes they did. We were all the boys wore pink

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Speaker 3: arm bands and it was so special and it made

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Speaker 3: her brother feel like he was doing something that he

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Speaker 3: could he could contribute something. And even though he goes,

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Speaker 3: he contribute all the time. You know, he sits with her,

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Speaker 3: he checks on her, he tried to get her to

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Speaker 3: eat everything else. But just having that arm day with

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Speaker 3: his teammates made him feel like he was really doing something.

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Speaker 3: How's he going, Oh, he's he's a big marshmallow. He's

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Speaker 3: just tough on the outside. He's feeling it inside. Did

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Speaker 3: he won't never say anything? No.

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Speaker 2: I can't even imagine.

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Speaker 1: You know, my kids are around that age and so

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Speaker 1: you know, I just can't even imagine how tough it

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Speaker 1: is for your family.

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Speaker 2: Tell me.

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Speaker 1: How much money has been raised and what is that

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Speaker 1: money going.

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Speaker 2: Towards and how can people help?

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Speaker 1: Because I reckon there's going to be lots of people

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Speaker 1: listening this morning who'd like to.

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Speaker 3: Most of it has gone. I think it's fourteen now.

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Speaker 3: Most of it has already gone. Like it goes on

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Speaker 3: food supplies, the air flights. You know, last sum we

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Speaker 3: were here, we took her to the zoo. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's incredibly hard not to drop one hundred dollars in

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Speaker 3: five seconds, you know, just going to Cols ubering, you know,

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Speaker 3: because none of us can just afford those extra costs.

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Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of medication that you know,

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Speaker 3: tedious or nappy white, it's just you know, and then

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Speaker 3: we're feeding Tyreeque on top of that, like we're doing

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Speaker 3: covering all his activities and his food and his schooling

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Speaker 3: and his clothes. So a lot of it actually goes

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Speaker 3: to Malaya and some.

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Speaker 4: Of it goes towards Parry to help keeping.

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Speaker 1: His normal new normal, which I think is fair enough.

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Speaker 1: You know, you've got to try and keep their lives

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Speaker 1: as normal as possible when she's going through anything but.

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Speaker 2: A normal battle.

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Speaker 1: How in terms of that treatment, how's it going and

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Speaker 1: what kind of you know progress is it happening on.

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Speaker 2: Her cancer.

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Speaker 3: The MRI. She had an MRI before chemo and it

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Speaker 3: came back clear, which is awesome. A lumber puncture is done.

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Speaker 3: We don't have all the results for that. They can't

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Speaker 3: ever actually get deep enough. So the treatment for her

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Speaker 3: cancer is full radiation and four rounds of chemo because

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Speaker 3: of the cells, because it's in the spinal fluid, so

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Speaker 3: they want to make sure that they double whammy her.

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Speaker 3: And then we're hoping singers and arms cross. But after

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Speaker 3: Christmas everything will be clear and she will be in remission.

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Speaker 2: Well, we all.

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Speaker 1: Be praying for you and certainly sending our love and

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Speaker 1: prayers to your little family and particularly to your little

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Speaker 1: granddaughter and also to your grandson Tracy.

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Speaker 2: Before I let you go, I mentioned this at the start.

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Speaker 1: I know that she had she's a football fan and

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Speaker 1: she had Reese Walsh and also Nathan Cleary send.

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Speaker 2: Her that video. Those videos. Did that bring a bit

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Speaker 2: of a smile to her face?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, she's sort of.

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Speaker 3: The Nathan Cleary one was gone through my sister. She

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Speaker 3: has a podcast, yeah, Armchair Champion, so his mum is

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Speaker 3: actually on there.

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Speaker 4: So that was for her birthday.

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Speaker 3: In May that was really good and yeah, she was

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Speaker 3: like she watched the video answers like really she said

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Speaker 3: my name long as all she cared about, you know

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Speaker 3: as a side eye, and I roll, really.

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Speaker 2: I love it.

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Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes those rugby league players, those young fellas,

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Speaker 1: they can cop a bit of stick for you know,

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Speaker 1: for whatever. But I just thought it was really lovely

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Speaker 1: to see that they'd sent those videos to her.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, his was very heartfelt. Reese Welsh, it felt very heartfelt,

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Speaker 3: which was really sincere of him.

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it's spot on, Tracy. Before I let

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Speaker 1: you go, what can people search for if they do

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Speaker 1: want to jump online and want to make a donation

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Speaker 1: to help to help Maliah and the battle and the

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Speaker 1: journey that your family's going through right now, where should

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Speaker 1: they go.

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Speaker 3: On? Her Facebook page is Malaiah Maholand And.

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Speaker 1: I know for me, if you don't know how to

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Speaker 1: spell her name, we can also jump on the on

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Speaker 1: the Nightcliff Dragons rugby League club. And I was able

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Speaker 1: to find it on there as well. They'd shared a

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Speaker 1: little video and so I'd done a bit of a

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Speaker 1: search and been able to find some further info on there,

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Speaker 1: and I watched a couple of videos and gee, she

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Speaker 1: seems like a lovely kid.

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Speaker 3: She is, she is well, incredible, incredibly brave.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't even imagine, Tracy. I really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. Thank you for having a chat to us,

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Speaker 1: and so much love to you, to your family, to

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Speaker 1: your granddaughter at what is an incredibly tough time.

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Speaker 2: And I'd love to.

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Speaker 1: Meet you guys when you come back to Darwin, when

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Speaker 1: things have calmed down a little bit for you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that'd be awesome. Thank you for caring, honestly, thank

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Speaker 3: you for caring.

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Speaker 2: No worries it all, Tracy.

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Speaker 1: And I tell you what, it's that Nightcliff Dragon's Rugby

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Speaker 1: League Club that that kept contacting.

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Speaker 2: Us as well to make sure that we knew what

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Speaker 2: was going on.

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Speaker 1: And what I love about that is that Rugby League

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Speaker 1: club is like a family to people that play with

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Speaker 1: the club, and I think that that's such a lovely thing.

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Speaker 3: They support Paris so much in so many ways.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible, Tracy, so very brave and wonderful of you

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Speaker 1: to talk to me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for your time.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie, thank you, thank you