Cairns mourns as “one in seven billion boy” passes away


 

The battle of Cairns’ bravest boy is over.

Brock Bryant, aged 11, yesterday passed away after a lifelong fight against a complex and unique array of health conditions that saw the Manunda child billed as the “one in seven billion boy”.

Doctors believe Brock was the only person on the planet to have auto-immune hepatitis, nephrotic syndrome and capillary leak syndrome, all at the same time.

Born at just 27 weeks, Brock was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis and nephrotic syndrome before he turned two. He was diagnosed with capillary leak syndrome in 2016.

His passing was announced yesterday by his mother Katrina on the Brock’s Fight Facebook page.

“Unfortunately Brock lost the fight today... Thank you to every single person who has supported us through these last few weeks.... Brock is now out of pain... RIP my HERO xxxxx”

The Bryants had been attempting to raise $80,000 to send Brock to the Mayo Clinic in the USA.

“They have a lot of dealings in unusual diseases and that’s what we need to find for Brock – someone who can maybe look at it from a different angle and come up with something else because we don’t have lots of options left for him in regards to his treatment,” Katrina told News Corp earlier this year.

“ALWAYS THINKING OF OTHERS”

Brock, who wanted to be a builder, was intent on raising both awareness and funds for other ill children, selling raffle tickets for the Cairns Hospital’s children’s ward and taking part in events such as the Rare Disease Day Fun Run and Walk.

In documenting a day of treatment, Katrina wrote on the Brock’s Fight page: “Sitting in hospital with him now and he has had a cry about all the shit from this morning and he says 'I only do this mum so hopefully if another kid is born and has this maybe they might know what to do cause they have learnt off me and they won't go through this crap'."

“That's my boy always thinking of others.”