Aussie model and actress Erin McNaught has taken to Instagram to share a candid post about her 18-month-old son Obi’s brain tumour diagnosis.
One year on from when Obi, was diagnosed with the devastating condition at just eight months old, McNaught has decided to share her family’s journey.
She explained that the reason behind the post was not to garner sympathy from her followers, but instead to give the public an insight into what life is really like for sick children and their families when they are “given a life changing diagnosis”.
The former Miss Universe contestant shares Obi with her partner Stasi Kotaras, an Aussie DJ who also goes by the stage name Stace Cadet. Koraras proposed to McNaught on Mother’s Day 2026.
In her post, the model shared a string of images documenting the experience, the first a snap of Obi right before his MRI, before his family knew what was about to happen.
Another the “rare” tumour that was described as “an aggressive, malignant cancer”.
“I have to stress – we are one of the lucky families. So far, Obi has remained cancer free, and we count our lucky stars every single day,” McNaught wrote in the caption.
“The tumour is most likely to recur in these first few years which means MRIs under General Anaesthesia every 4 months, but so far, so good 🙏🏽
“But many of the beautiful kids and their families that we met are not so lucky.”
Other images in the post included Obi’s first CT scan, The Wishing Tree where her older sons would hang “their messages of hope”, and a picture taken right before Obi’s second surgery which she described as “the Big One”.
“He’d had an EVD (drain) inserted two days prior to drain the excess fluid from his brain – a surgery that we feel almost certainly saved his life, he was deteriorating so rapidly,” she wrote.
For those who struggled with the emotional weight of the images, McNaught recommended they scroll to the final slide of the post “to see our beautiful 19 month old boy barely containing his excitement at seeing a Hay-tot-ter (helicopter)“.
“And if you are feeling like you want to help other kids and their families trying to navigate the heartache of brain cancer, please follow (and even donate to!) the following organisations @brainchildfoundationau @childrensorgau,” she added.
