'I feel like this is the Garden of Eden'

By Carla Penman

After months of wondering what was wrong with her teenage son, Carolyn Hinton's world came crashing down in March this year.

"The doctor said to me, '[Jaz has] got a brain tumour, and we're flying him to Starship [Hospital] right now'."

The news shook her family of five living in New Plymouth to the core.

They immediately drove up to Auckland and were able to be put up at Ronald McDonald House, close to Jaz's ward at Auckland City Hospital.

Slowly, she says, after surgery, Jaz got stronger and they were allowed to go home to New Plymouth for a seven-week stint before a scheduled biopsy.

"Ten days later, we get a phone call. And as soon as that surgeon rung I could tell he had good news... He said 'he's got a germinoma'.

"He said 'if you got a brain tumour, this is the one you want'."

Carolyn says they then came back up to Auckland, to the Ronald McDonald House, to get treatment under way and for the past few months, they've been back and forth.

"[The] fantastic news is... the tumour's gone. All gone.

"And now we just monitor to make sure it doesn't return. So he's just having... another three or four treatments and then we're finished. What a happy ending."

Forty-two other families are staying at Ronald McDonald House in Grafton, along with the Hintons, at the moment.

Carolyn says she owes so much to the support they've had at the house.

"This place for us has been a sanctuary. It's like a refuge for us. And when you go through something like this , to have a place where you can just sit quietly, take in everything that's been happening in your life... I feel like this is the Garden of Eden."

Jaz, an aspiring basketball player, says it's been "really cool" having other people to play with and a basketball hoop outside to keep active.

The Hinton family's next focus is to be back home in New Plymouth by Christmas.

"The first thing when we get home is to get a Christmas tree. We always get a wild Christmas tree."

More than 600 families will stay at a Ronald McDonald House this Christmas at a cost of $140 per night for each family.

To help foot the bill, the charity's produced a new e-book, written by Kiwi author Peter Millet, called The Night You Saved Christmas.

It's hoped that it'll raise enough money to provide more than 5000 nights for families staying with them.

People can text "XMAS" to 4483 to make a $3 donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities and in return, get a personalised Christmas e-book.