Lok Lok’s 16 and a half years: How love, specialist radiation, and proactive palliative care gave a gentle family dog 30 extra months after a devastating diagnosis.

Story contributed by Lok Lok's family, Ryan Mok & Carina Fung

Lok Lok was born in Hong Kong on 9 November 2009 and came to his family at just two months old. Gentle, sweet-natured and endlessly obedient, he won the hearts of everyone around him.

Swimming was the highlight of Lok Lok’s week for 14 years.

When his hips began to trouble him at around two years old, his family made him a promise: every week, he would go swimming.

For more than 14 years, swimming day was the highlight of his week, right up until his cancer diagnosis. His family believes those years of regular exercise gave him a strong body and a good foundation to face everything that came later.

In 2021, he moved with his family to Melbourne and settled into park walks and quiet afternoons at home.

A Devastating Diagnosis

In October 2023, on an ordinary walk, Lok Lok had the first seizure of his life. Scans found a tumour in his brain, positioned too close to major blood vessels for surgery to be safe.

His emergency team referred him to Dr David Lurie at ONE Cancer Care for Pets in Sydney, who offered a precise, targeted radiation treatment. With a low dose of medication to help, Lok Lok enjoyed two more years without a single seizure.

Dr David Lurie, a board-certified veterinary oncologist and radiation oncologist, describes Lok Lok’s family as a model for proactive pet advocacy:

“Lok Lok’s family wanted the very best level of care for their beloved pet. The initial diagnosis was devastating for them, but they mobilized to understand the challenge ahead and what their options were, and they never wavered in delivering the best care possible.”

For a brain tumour like Lok Lok’s, Dr David explains that radiation therapy remains the standard of care. Advancements in precision targeting allowed Lok Lok to undergo treatment with minimal impact on his overall quality of life. He navigated the treatments exceptionally well, gaining over two more years living a happy, fulfilled life with his family.

Cancer is something most pet owners will eventually face—reports indicate that 50% of dogs over ten years old will die from cancer. However, Dr David emphasizes that hearing the word does not mean there is no hope.

“Just obtaining a specialist oncology consult to be given the options and being empowered to make the best decisions on behalf of your pet is hugely important,” says Dr David. “Knowing that ‘no stone has been left unturned’ is essential for peace of mind and closure when the time comes. Proactive care and early intervention can result in many more years of quality of life.”

Navigating New Challenges

In December 2025, a seizure returned and left Lok Lok completely exhausted. His family took turns holding him in 24-hour shifts, playing calming music made specifically for dogs.

Tests soon revealed harder news: advanced liver cancer that had spread to his chest. Heartbroken but determined, his family began a new treatment guided by Dr David, which Lok Lok handled beautifully. While his swimming days came to an end, he kept his appetite and enjoyed his regular walks, supported by routine check-ups at Brandon Park Vet.

Dressed for a sun-safe stroll: Lok Lok enjoying one of his regular walks in Melbourne.

In March, a second seizure occurred. By then, his family knew the routine: keep him safe, time the event, and stay close while he recovered.

On the first evening of the Easter long weekend, after struggling with night-time barking, he was rushed to an emergency hospital where fluid was drained from his chest. By morning, he was quiet, dull, and his pupils were unreactive to light. Needing oxygen to stay steady, the emergency team advised that it was time to say goodbye.

One More Month All the Way Home

At home, Lok Lok rested in familiar surroundings.

Because Lok Lok still wanted to eat, his family could not bear for his last hours to be spent in an unfamiliar clinical ward. They arranged a pet ambulance and a home oxygen machine to bring him home, planning one last peaceful night together before assisting him the next day.

Then, the moment he crossed the doorway, he transformed. His eyes brightened, he smiled, played with his family, and barked cheerfully at mealtimes. What was meant to be one final night became more than a month of precious quality time.

The team at Brandon Park Vet supported the family continuously through phone check-ins.

Dr Linda taught them how to evaluate his well-being daily using a structured 7-point quality-of-life framework.

Assessing Quality of Life: Dr. Linda’s 7 Key Indicators

Monitoring an elderly or unwell pet’s well-being helps owners recognise gradual changes and make informed decisions with confidence. Use this 7-point checklist to assess your pet daily:

• 1. Pain & Comfort:
  Watch for subtle signs of discomfort like panting, restlessness, whimpering, or difficulty getting comfortable. Ensure pain is being effectively managed by your vet team.
• 2. Appetite:
  Is your pet enjoying their food? Refusing favourite treats or struggling to eat indicates a potential shift in their overall well-being.
• 3. Hydration:
  Monitor drinking habits closely for increases or decreases, and watch for physical signs of dehydration.
• 4. Hygiene:
  Evaluate whether your pet can toilet cleanly without distress, or if they require additional support with grooming and hygiene.
• 5. Happiness:
  Notice whether they still seek affection, interact with family, or enjoy favourite activities and toys.
• 6. Mobility:
  Assess if your pet can stand, walk, access their bed, and move around without significant distress or pain.
• 7. More Good Days Than Bad:
  Keep a simple calendar log recording good vs. bad days. A visual record makes subtle, long-term trends easier to evaluate objectively.

His family provided round-the-clock care—turning him gently, massaging his legs, helping him stretch, and keeping him comfortable.

“The goal was never simply to prolong Lok Lok’s life, but to make the time he had as comfortable, dignified and happy as possible.” — Dr Linda, Brandon Park Vet

By 9 May, Lok Lok grew weaker. Though he still wanted to eat, he could no longer control his tongue, signalling to his family that his journey was coming to an end. On the afternoon of 10 May 2026, as his mum held him in her arms for a nap, Lok Lok passed away peacefully in his sleep.

Following his October 2023 radiation treatment, Lok Lok enjoyed 30 additional months filled with walks, good meals, and cuddles.

Hearing a cancer diagnosis does not have to mean an immediate goodbye. Don’t decide in the dark—ask questions, explore specialist options, and make informed choices alongside your veterinary team.

A celebration of life: Lok Lok enjoying a special birthday feast during his extra 30 months of happy memories with his family.

Photo Credit:  Hero image Dr. Caroline Duddy (left) and Dr. David Lurie (right).  All photographs supplied courtesy of Lok Lok’s family (Ryan Mok & Carina Fung).

Disclaimer: The story above reflects a personal experience. Always consult a licensed veterinarian or veterinary oncologist regarding medical diagnoses, radiation therapy, or palliative care protocols for your pets.

By Caroline Zambrano

Ten years after her cancer diagnosis, Bella is remembered as a gentle family protector whose resilience, illness and loss changed the course of Arthur and Sandra Wajs’ lives.

When Arthur and Sandra Wajs’ daughter Ella was born in April 2011, Bella was little more than a puppy herself. Yet the American Staffordshire Terrier seemed to immediately appoint herself as their baby’s protector.

“Bella was the gentlest of dogs, incredibly intelligent and caring,” said Sandra. “She was fascinated with Ella when she was born and would always be sitting or sleeping next to the cot or the pram, never leaving her side, like it was her mission to be her protector.”

“Bella may have looked tough, but she was far more likely to lick you to death than hurt anyone,” said Arthur.

Five years later, in April 2016, their roles were reversed. Bella needed her family to protect and care for her when what appeared to be a common skin condition was diagnosed as a rare and progressive cancer.

Arthur and Sandra were warned that their six-year-old dog might have only weeks or months to live. In the end, the family shared another 19 months with Bella, doing everything they could to keep her comfortable while treasuring the ordinary moments that made her life special.

Bella died on 23 November 2017. As the anniversary of her death approaches, Arthur and Sandra are sharing her story for Pet Cancer Awareness Month, not simply to remember how she died, but to celebrate how she lived and the mission her life inspired.

“Bella was the dog that opened our eyes, minds and hearts,” said Arthur.

To understand the legacy she left behind, it helps to know the dog Bella was before cancer entered their lives.

A Gentle Family Protector

Michelle has fond memories of growing up with Bella, pictured together in 2013. 

Arthur and Sandra returned to Australia from Poland in 2002 after 11 years abroad and settled on the Gold Coast. In 2010, they decided to get a Staffy after a third break-in at their Southport home. They found nine-week-old Bella on Gumtree and decided to go see her that day.

“We hadn’t originally planned to choose Bella. She was the little runt with a kink in her tail, nine nipples and one eye different colour from the other. She had those massive ‘dumbo’ ears! But her mother picked her up and literally placed her in Sandra’s lap. It felt as though Bella’s mum had chosen us to be her family,” said Arthur.

“As my mum’s Poodle, Coco, would stay with us often, it was also important that we got a dog from a family who also had small dogs and cats. That’s exactly how we found our Bella. There was a Pomeranian and a cat!”

When Bella joined the Wajs family, their ginger cat, Garfield, was already the undisputed boss of the house and the neighbourhood.

“When Bella met Garfield for the first time, the cat was so disappointed that he disappeared for two days and after he came back, he always made sure that Bella knew that he was the boss by eating from her bowl before her and sleeping on her bed,” said Arthur.

Bella was easy to train and because she had an older cat brother and Coco would come to stay too, she thought that she was a mixture of a cat and a poodle, laughed Sandra.

“She would stretch like a cat and only wanted to play with little dogs,” she recalled. “Their owners looked petrified when this 40-kilogram ‘monster’ came running over to play. When Ella was born, Bella became her constant companion and protector, always watching over her.”

Arthur saw Bella as his companion and the guardian of the family.

“She stayed within about half a metre of my leg and ran beside me when I rode my bike,” he said. “There was something incredibly human about her. She was intensely attached to the family. She was also such an entertainer. She wasn’t allowed on the furniture inside, but outside she had her own chair at the table. That was Bella’s chair.”

Arthur joked that, in a household where his wife, daughters and mother often told him what to do, Bella was the only one who always listened – or so he thought! He explained that Bella wouldn’t touch the food in her bowl until he gave her permission. But during the interview, he discovered to his surprise that Bella and the children did whatever they wanted behind his back!

“Bella was really cute, very calm and she loved eating my food,” said Ella, now age 15. “I used to give Bella lots of food. I remember once, I walked away to get some soy sauce and she ate my sushi.”

Arthur and Sandra’s older daughter, Michelle, now 26, remembers she was in primary school when Bella joined the family. “I was about nine and we’d only had Bella for a short time. One day she squeezed through the car window and chased me all the way through the school grounds to my classroom!” laughed Michelle. “She was very attached to us, very protective and she absolutely loved children.”

The Diagnosis That Changed Everything

The first signs appeared in early 2016, when Bella developed what Arthur and Sandra initially believed was a common skin problem.

“Sandra was the first to notice something was wrong. Bella had experienced skin irritation before, so when the bumps appeared, we initially thought they were hives or an allergy,” said Arthur. “We looked at everything – her food, possible allergies and whether we needed to change her diet. We sought several veterinary opinions before one vet told us this may be cancer. That was the moment everything changed.”

They took Bella to their long-time family veterinarian and close friend, Dr Baron Jonsson, who investigated further. A biopsy revealed that Bella had cutaneous epitheliotropic T-cell lymphoma (CETL), a rare and progressive skin cancer.

CETL involves malignant T-lymphocytes infiltrating the upper layers of the skin and can progress from redness and scaling to plaques and painful ulcers. Bella had lesions affecting her nose, ears, thorax and flank. Some were weeping and slow to heal.

Faced with a devastating prognosis and few available options, Arthur and Sandra explored several approaches to managing Bella’s symptoms and maintaining her quality of life. Sandra moved Bella onto a raw, organic diet with no kibble, and Dr Baron put her on a high-dose linoleic acid protocol using safflower oil.

Around the same time, Arthur and Sandra were offered a bottle of what they understood to be cannabis oil through a close family friend who was seriously ill with breast cancer. Regulated access to medicinal cannabis was extremely limited at the time, but Arthur made the difficult decision to try the unverified preparation.

Dr Baron did not prescribe or direct its use but continued to monitor Bella as her treating veterinarian.

“The bottle was described to us as cannabis oil, but we didn’t know its cannabinoid concentration,” Arthur said.

Earlier in her illness, Bella continued to eat, run and enjoy time with her family.

“We kept doing all the normal things with Bella,” said Sandra. “We’d take her to the park across from our house or to our favourite place, the dog beach at the Spit. She’d run over to play with the little dogs, much to their owners’ horror.”

Bella was receiving several forms of care at once, including a new diet, the linoleic acid protocol and regular veterinary monitoring, and one dog’s experience cannot show why she lived for another 19 months.

“We do not claim that cannabis or hemp cured or treated Bella’s cancer,” Arthur said. “This was our personal experience, not a controlled trial.”

After the preparation ran out in April 2017, Arthur recalls that Bella’s lesions worsened. In September, Arthur obtained a different oil that he understood to be CBD-predominant. He said it did not affect the tumours.

The Final Six Months

Bella’s health steadily declined and by November 2017, the bad days were more frequent than the good ones. Arthur and Sandra had to find the difficult balance between hope and recognising disease progression.

“During Bella’s final six months, she barely left the house. We didn’t want to expose her to other dogs because we were worried about her immune system, but she was still there with us, still part of everything,” said Arthur.

“The most important thing that we can do to support an animal or human with cancer is to make them comfortable any which way.”

“Cancer hurts, so working closely with your vet on pain relief is critical. We must enjoy every day while the inevitable is approaching.”

“It’s heart-breaking to see the disease progress. But we have to stay strong and positive for those in our care and can only cry in private. Never in front of them, as much as it may hurt.”

Arthur and Sandra faced the decision every family dreads.

“Seeing her struggle to move and breathe in November 2017 was so hard, and so was making the decision to take her on that final trip to Baron’s clinic, an hour and a half’s drive away,” said Arthur. “She was so brave, right to the end. Every extra day we had with her was a bonus, for us and for her.”

Bella was euthanised at Dr Baron’s clinic on 23 November 2017.

Turning Grief Into a Mission

In time, caring for Bella gave Arthur and Sandra a new purpose.

“What we learned caring for Bella and how little was understood about pet nutrition and the endocannabinoid system became our purpose,” said Arthur.

“Bella died in the same month that low-THC hemp seed foods became legal to sell in Australia for people. Hemp seed oil was gaining attention for its nutritional value, and we thought, why shouldn’t pets have access to that nutrition too?”

After working with a small team of veterinarians, biochemists and nutrition specialists, Arthur and Sandra launched HempPet in 2018 as Australia’s first hemp-based pet supplement range. Dr Baron became their Veterinary Advisor.

Neither preparation Bella received was a HempPet product. HempPet products are not a treatment for cancer or any other disease.

“When Bella got sick, I educated myself about animal nutrition,” said Sandra. “Caring for her on a very specific diet through her illness inspired me to deep dive into animal nutrition, and that shaped the products we make now. HempPet is a true legacy to our Bella and she continues to influence the principles behind our work.”

As this year marks ten years since Bella’s cancer diagnosis and the beginning of the journey that inspired HempPet, Arthur and Sandra want to remember Bella and raise awareness about cancer and the importance of comfort, veterinary care and valuing each day with your pet.

“For anyone who receives the news of a cancer diagnosis, it’s a very raw and devastating time. Don’t give up hope. Work closely with your vet and keep fighting for your animal and for yourself,” said Arthur.

The Wajs family cherish Bella’s legacy as a gentle family protector who changed the direction of their lives.

“This is why we do what we do. Bella is what makes me get out of bed and keep pushing forward,” said Arthur.

Photo Credit: all supplied

About the Author:

Caroline Zambrano is an experienced pet journalist and communications professional specialising in animal health, welfare, and human-animal bond stories. For details, please visit petjourno.com.au

Disclaimer: The story above reflects a personal experience. Always consult a licensed veterinarian regarding medical diagnoses, dietary changes, or therapeutic treatments for your pets.

Pet Cancer Awareness: Essential Reading

• Know Your Dog’s Cancer Risk: Early Signs & Prevention
  Learn the key risk factors across common breeds and the early symptoms every owner should watch for.
  Discover practical veterinary guidance on early screening and preventative health strategies.
• Pet Cancer Linked to Home Chemicals: What Every Owner Should Know
  Explore critical research connecting everyday household products and toxins to canine cancer risks.
  Find safe, pet-friendly alternatives to protect your dog’s living environment and long-term health.
• The Cancer Connection in Dogs and Humans
  Uncover the shared biological pathways and environmental factors affecting both human and canine oncology.
  See how comparative medical research is improving treatment outcomes for both species.

Santa Paws Festival Returns to Sydney's Centennial Park to Raise $100k for Rescue Pets

Sydney’s ultimate festive pet celebration is back for its fourth and final year. Santa Paws returns to Centennial Park on Sunday, November 15th, delivering a huge morning of pet-friendly festivities while raising critical funds for rescue animals across New South Wales.

Organised by Ozzie Tails of Hope Ltd, this annual community event brings together thousands of dog lovers, local rescue groups, and pet professionals to make a lasting impact for animals in need. With attendance growing each year, organisers expect over 3,500 attendees and their four-legged companions to flock to Federation Valley.

Paws, Play & Fun: What’s On at Santa Paws

Running from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Centennial Park will transform into a festive canine wonderland packed with activities, expert advice, and holiday shopping.

✔️ Santa Photos: Grab an iconic holiday snap with your hound alongside Santa Claus.

✔️ Canine Competitions: Test your pup’s skills in the Doggie Dash, Best Trick (featuring Sassy Treats), Best Dressed (matching Christmas outfits encouraged), Fastest Recall, Happiest Dog, Rescue Dog of the Day, and Musical Sit (musical chairs for dogs).

✔️ Expert Advice: Connect with leading pet healthcare and wellness professionals.

✔️ 18 Food Trucks & Stalls: Shop local pet vendors, pick up festive gear, and grab gourmet bites and coffee for human companions.

Meet Rescue Pets Looking for Forever Homes

Beyond the games and Santa snaps, the heart of Santa Paws is championing animal welfare and rehoming pets. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet puppies, adult dogs, and kittens available for adoption from partnering rescue charities:

• Dogs & Pups: Denise at Paws, Greyhound Rescue, Pound Rescue, and Wiener Crew Rescue.

• Kitten Wonderland: Visit the dedicated feline zone hosted by Kittie Kat Rescue for kitten cuddles and adoptions.

A $100,000 Fundraising Goal for Animal Rescue

Driven by a surge in community support, Ozzie Tails of Hope Ltd has set an ambitious target to raise $100,000 during this final instalment. All funds raised go directly toward shelter care, veterinary treatment, and rehoming efforts.

Santa Paws is the passion project of Kiki Bermudez, local real estate agent for Highland in the Eastern Suburbs and founder of Ozzie Tails of Hope Ltd.

"Santa Paws is an interactive and fun community event where animal lovers can come together to make a real difference for animals in need," says Bermudez. "Every dollar raised helps ensure these hard-working rescue groups can continue their valuable work... We truly believe every animal deserves a chance."

Bermudez also thanked Centennial Park for hosting the event under their charitable initiative and supporting the festival in their backyard.

To help reach the $100k goal, attendees can take part in the onsite and online raffle and silent auction featuring prize packages for pet parents.

Event Details at a Glance

• Event: Santa Paws – Family & Dog-Friendly Charity Fundraiser
• Date: Sunday, November 15th
• Time: 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM AEDT
• Location: Federation Valley, Centennial Parklands Dog Park, Sydney, NSW
• Cost: Free Entry (Pre-booked activities such as Santa Photos & Consultations start from $40)

About Ozzie Tails of Hope Ltd

Ozzie Tails of Hope Ltd is a non-profit organisation advocating for stronger animal protections and supporting front-line rescue groups. Through events like Santa Paws, they raise vital funds and awareness to ensure homeless pets receive the respect, dignity, and forever homes they deserve.