By KEA BROWNING
ARMANI Dixon is nine years old. She loves basketball, soccer and art.
Armani goes to St Brigid’s Catholic School and lives on a sheep farm near Combara, where she spends her spare time helping care for the sheep and riding her motorbike.
When she was four years old, Armani and her siblings were playing near an outdoor fire when Armani tripped over oil.
“I fell towards the fire so I quickly got up … and then the fire just went around me,” she said.
“It got onto my hand and I tried to get it off with my other hand and then I screamed and then mum came out and got water and all that to put on the fire.”
Armani was rushed to Sydney by the Royal Flying Doctors with severe third degree burns to her face, neck and torso.
She was put into an induced coma for six weeks while she underwent treatment at Westmead Children’s Hospital.
“It was pretty bad, it was not minor on the scale of burns,” said Armani’s step-father Wayne Anforth.
“When the accident happened, it was touch and go for the first few weeks.”
Armani lost her left ear in the accident, and has to receive annual skin grafts.
Armani’s treatment includes daily exercises, which can be painful, and she often wears a compression garment to protect her skin and reduce scarring.
Armani makes regular visits to Sydney for escharotomies, which is a process where an area of rigid burned skin is cut to allow for increased movement and released pressure.
Despite the traumatic nature of the accident and ongoing treatment, people close to Armani are in awe of her positivity, happiness and ‘ever-present’ smile.
“When Armani goes back down to Sydney for treatment, she does a lap of the hospital to see everyone,” Wayne said.
“They all love her down there, she’s been a bit of a star.”
The financial cost of travelling to Sydney regularly, as well as the cost of Armani’s hospital treatments, was significant.
“We were struggling to get by, and we had three of these little monsters to look after,” said Wayne.
“It’s massive to come up with a couple of hundred dollars for accommodation for a night down there [in Sydney].”
Armani received the treatment she needed and her family were able to stay on their feet thanks to organisations like Ronald McDonald House, the Royal Flying Doctors, then-Department of Family and Community Services (now called the Department of Communities and Justice) and Little Wings.
In June, Armani decided she wanted to do something to give back to Little Wings, a non-profit organisation that provides free transport for children in regional and rural NSW and were ‘invaluable’ in her recovery.
“There were so many people that depend on Little Wings out here, I don’t think people actually realise how many people use them out here,” Wayne said.
“Armani could’ve had a totally different outcome without them, we probably couldn’t have given her everything she needed to get down [to Sydney], so she’s probably in a lot better shape because of them.”
To raise the $500, Wayne spent two days shearing, and Armani did her part by spending a couple of hours stomping on the bales and helping family friend Willy Redington press the wool.
“I had fun doing it,” she said.
“Except it got all in dad’s hair, it was funny, and then some got on my shirt!”
Then, they sold the high quality product for $500, and donated it to Little Wings in July.
“I felt happy and excited to tell Clare [Pearson, Little Wings CEO],” Armani said.
“It made me want to do it again, because I have been seeing other people try to raise money and I thought it would be good for me to help out as well.”
Armani and her family are now collecting bottles and cans and giving them to Gulargambone Lion’s Club in exchange for a donation towards Little Wings.
“I think we’re just going to bob around and pick up cans and bottles and anyone who wants to, they can start collecting some too,” said Wayne.
“Times are pretty hard and asking people to donate, we know all too well how hard things can get, so this is an easy way to raise some money.”
Looking towards the future, Armani’s positive experiences with the nurses at Westmead Children’s Hospital has had such an impact that she says she now wants to be a nurse.
“I want to be a nurse, because I know all about nursing,” she said.
“I have been given some doctor stuff from the nurses – I got bandages, those water container things [saline] and I got Dettol wipes, three pairs of scissors and a stethoscope.”
“The nursing stuff has really stuck with her,” Wayne said.
“The nurses she’s had are worth triple their weight in gold.”