Top mum says love is highest priority

A young Hedland mother was recognised as one of the top three mums in the State last week at the WA Mother of the Year awards.

Kylie Day, 24, has four kids aged one to seven who she raises with her husband, Josh.

Two years ago, at just 15 months old, the couple’s daughter Sienna Rose was diagnosed with a rare condition called anti-NMDA which left her with severe brain damage.

Sienna Rose, now two, requires about 13 different medications administered two to three times daily.

Mrs Day said her daughter was taken to hospital after suffering a seizure, and after seven weeks of tests was diagnosed with the extremely rare condition.

“To have such a beautiful, healthy child running around one day and having fun, to suddenly having your daughter diagnosed with some rare condition we’d never heard of was horrible,” she said.

“The condition was first recognised in 2007, and Sienna Rose is the youngest case of it in the world, so the doctors and nurses were as stumped as we were at first.”

Mrs Day was living in Pinjarra at the time, with her husband working fly-in, fly-out to the Pilbara.

“It was already sort of hard looking after the kids without Josh there, then Sienna got sick and Josh had to keep working so we could pay for the house, and I’d be in the hospital all the time,” Mrs Day said.

“Sienna was in the hospital for seven months, and it wasn’t easy.”

The family moved to South Hedland last year so Mr Day could spend more time helping with the children.

“It’s made all the difference having Josh home every day to help with the kids,” she said.

“It’s been amazing up here, it’s so family orientated … we have to fly to Perth every three months for Sienna’s scans and we get all her medication flown up here.

“But it’s so worth it up here, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

While Mrs Day missed out on the WA Mother of the Year award, she said being recognised as one of the top three mothers in WA was an amazing experience.

“My Mum and all of my friends always say ‘you should be Mum of the year’, but it sort of goes in one ear and out the other, you know, I’m just doing my job,” she said.

“You just do what you do every day, what’s normal for you, and you don’t think anything of it, but apparently that makes you one of the best mothers of the year.

“In the end it’s about love, lots of love, the more love you give your kids the more they’ll enjoy their life, and that’s what it’s about.”