Just two weeks after losing their stepmother Fi Hansen to cancer, brothers Jesse and Jordie Hansen packed their bags to compete on Australian Survivor: Blood Vs Water.
Speaking to POPSUGAR Australia after his elimination, Jordie explained the bond between them, saying, “stepmum isn’t really the term for us, she was a mum to us”.
With the loss so fresh, Jordie said that the combination of “the grief of losing Fi”, along with concern for their father, was “the hardest element of the game”.
“We didn’t really have a lot of time to grieve,” Jordie said, “but we had a little bit of warning” before her passing.
Jordie explained that his late stepmum’s condition was “going downhill for a good month beforehand”, so Jesse, Jordie and their father all rallied around Fi during her last weeks.
“We all sort of left our jobs and went and spent Fi’s last weeks with her and we wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for the financial support of really generous family and friends,” he said.
Without that support, Jordie said, they all would’ve had to work, and “wouldn’t have been able to spend that time with her”, which he said was “so important”.
This experience prompted Jesse and Jordan to launch a GoFundMe, which they’re hoping to launch into a charity called Fi’s Butterfly Effect.
The idea behind Fi’s Butterfly Effect is that it will provide financial support for the family members of terminally ill patients, enabling them to spend time with their loved ones during the time leading up to their death.
“We had a bit of a look around, and there’s a lot of medical support and paying for medical support, but there’s no real help for families who have a terminally ill family member,” Jordie explained. “We want to help a family like ours be able to be with their loved one in that terrible time, you know, there were some dark days being around her during that time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
To kick things off, Jordie’s brother Jesse will be cycling 400km a day from Adelaide to Uluru in late May in order to raise money and awareness for Fi’s Butterfly Effect.
“We’ve been in touch with Palliative Care Victoria, and they’re helping us sort through families and work out the best families to help,” Jordie said. “Nothing’s locked in yet, we’re still going through that process, but we’ve got a lot of support from some great organisations.”
The name Fi’s Butterfly Effect comes from a letter that Fi wrote Jesse and Jordie before she passed.
“In it, she said that every time we see a butterfly, we have to think of her and be thankful and grateful for every day,” Jordie said, “and funny enough, there were thousands of butterflies each day on Survivor.”
You can read more about the GoFundMe here.
Australian Survivor airs at 7.30pm, Sundays and Mondays, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
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