Tributes are flowing online after a young Christchurch boy tragically passed away following a "challenging and exhausting" eight-year battle with cancer.
Lachie Sutherland died at the Nurse Maude Hospice in Merivale on Tuesday.
In a Facebook post announcing the passing, Lachie's family said they was "heartbroken for our loss but deeply relieved that Lachie is no longer suffering".
Lachie was four years-old when he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma - a child cancer of the adrenal glands - in 2012.
Just a year after the diagnosis, Lachie would grieve the loss of his father Chris Sutherland, who had metastatic melanoma and had been diagnosed just a month before.
In a Givealittle page set up to raise funds for Lachie to receive MIBG therapy, family friend Sarah Faulkner wrote that the family had worked hard to "heal and rebuild" over many years.
"It's been a challenging and exhausting journey. Last year when Kelly remarried we celebrated with them as a new and exciting chapter in their lives began," she wrote.
"It was to be short lived. Just four weeks after their marriage, Kelly and Jon learnt that Lachie had relapsed."
Lachie's MIBG treatment and travel-related costs came to $80,000. At the time of Lachie's passing, more than half that amount had been raised.
Since Lachie's death was announced, a flurry of new donations have flooded in, many alongside heartfelt condolences to his family.
"There are no words, rest easy little champion," one donor wrote.
"I know this won't help your grief but the least we can do is help cover the burden of cost. My heart breaks for you," said another.
Dean Curlew, a friend of Chris's, wrote in a public Facebook post that he was pleased his mate could now reconcile with his son.
"Not the way you expect to, but that's the only positive I can see in the news," he wrote. "My son is about the same age as Lachie, he is wondering why I am hugging him a little tighter and more often."
"May Lachie rest in peace with his daddy," added Patient Voice Aotearoa, an organisation that advocates for patient rights. "Our thoughts are with his family."
