Not only did she get to thank those who this month helped raise $15,765.35 to help her fight her rare form of cancer, she also got hearing aids to help combat the hearing loss that has been one of the side-effects of her cancer treatment.

“Mummy I can hear you,” she told her mother Jenna.

She also presented Danny Roberts with a drawing she had done of him without the shock of long blond hair he had shaved off this month as part of the fund-raising efforts for her. 

Ms Steel, of Hamilton, said the money raised by the community through the Fight 4 Ivy event in Warrnambool this month was “amazing”.

It would be used to help fund the ongoing treatment Ivy is expected to receive in her battle with a rare form of leukaemia. Ivy has been back at her Hamilton home for about a month after spending a year in hospital in Melbourne receiving treatment.

She still receives daily chemotherapy to keep the cancer at bay but was full of energy at Warrnambool’s Lake Pertobe playground yesterday where she met Mr Roberts and another supporter of the Fight 4 Ivy event, boxing trainer Rodney Ryan.

Mr Roberts, a second cousin to Ivy’s father Craig, linked up with Mr Ryan to help stage the Fight 4 Ivy event on August 10.

The event involved exhibition boxing by IBF middleweight world champion Sam Soliman and local amateur boxers, a talk by Warrnambool cricket export Tim Ludeman, who plays for the Adelaide Strikers Twenty20 team, Mr Roberts’ head shave and an auction of goods and services.