To be the best, one must unfailingly pick oneself up after every fall, and persevere.

While chasing her dream, Claudine's coccyx took more hits than she can remember.

But she ignored the back pain, because that's what excellence requires.

In 2012 an MRI revealed the extent of the injury to her back.

It was also in 2012, after a long and painful journey, that Claudine and her husband Graham welcomed baby Audrey into the world.

"I didn't know how much a heart could grow but it felt like mine was going to burst. She was everything I could have asked for," Claudine said.

But their period of baby bliss was short-lived. In January 2013, Claudine was struck down with paralysing pain.

With baby Audrey never far from her side, Claudine underwent a spinal fusion operation.

But when she awoke, she experienced a pain she'd never known before.

"I felt like I was being electrocuted," she said.

Her surgeon had botched her operation. She said she later found out hers was not an isolated case.

"He faced disciplinary action and I was left in limbo. I spent months in hospital in agony. In hindsight I should have sought legal advice but I was just focusing on caring for my daughter," she said.

After a year of soldiering on, Claudine and Graham welcomed their second daughter, Yvonne, into the world.

"She was a little miracle," Claudine said.

"But shortly after celebrating Yvonne's first birthday our world came crashing down as we were told the words: 'Audrey has an aggressive cancer and we need to remove her right eye immediately'."

Audrey had retinoblastoma - a type of eye cancer that affects children under the age of six.

At just two years of age, Audrey could not comprehend the months of operations and chemotherapy she was forced to undergo.

"How do you explain to a two-year-old why you must hold them down for hours on end - she thought she was being poisoned," Claudine said.

In the midst of that traumatic experience for the family, Claudine's back "gave in". The botched fusion had officially failed.

Finding someone to repair the damage done was fraught - as soon as hospitals realised who her former surgeon had been, they turned down any future surgery.

"I was passed around from hospital to hospital. Because of my past surgeon I was a liability," she said.

Eventually a maverick doctor offered her a lifeline.

"I had surgery to remove everything from the previous surgery and had L5-S1 re-fused, L4-L5 fused and a disc replacement at L3," she said.

"I don't know how he did it, but he managed. He is and always will be the love of my life."

Sadly, Claudine's troubles were far from over: "Upon waking from the surgery I immediately said 'I can't feel my right leg'".

"It felt like someone was holding a hot iron to my leg, I couldn't stop screaming. I just wanted to go home though and be with my beautiful girls so I gathered all my strength and kept going."

One saving grace in all of this was the news that Audrey had conquered her cancer.

In spite of lived trauma and persistent pain, life continued for the family.

A year and a half ago they moved to Nambucca Heads. Claudine said it was the best move she's ever made.

"I've never felt such a sense of community in my whole life," she said.

Claudine said the Valley accepted her family with open arms, and she and Graham tried to repay their love in whatever way they could, often volunteering for school carpools and childcare.

"But what most of my friends didn't know was that I'd come home from school drop-off, lay in bed in pain all day, and then find enough strength to get up for the school pick-ups," she said. "That was my day - that was all I could manage."

About three weeks ago things escalated again for Claudine.

She started having involuntary convulsions from the burning pain in her leg and was taken away by ambulance, but there were no hospital vacancies in Coffs Harbour.

With no other options available to her, she was taken to the Gold Coast where she reached out to the same maverick surgeon who had come to her rescue previously.

With his help Claudine is now in Greenslopes Private Hospital in Brisbane, heavily sedated, but without pain for the first time in nearly a decade.

Her right leg collapses when she puts weight on it, and because she's considered to be a fall risk, Claudine is unable to be given a wheelchair, and must rely on nurses to lift her onto the toilet.

Her family is currently by her side as she waits for the results of an MRI which could dictate the course of her future.

"I should be trying to focus on getting better but I can't because I'm just so worried about expenses," she said.

"I used to be an accountant, but since the first operation I've been unable to work.

"My husband has had to take months off work to care for our family - he has no paid leave left and is currently taking unpaid leave.

"We're already up to our necks in debt, and I've exhausted my super.

"If they can do anything for me now, I'm probably up for a large out-of-pocket fee."

With Audrey suffering from chronic anxiety and complex PTSD after the trauma of her cancer treatment, she needs to be by her mother's side. Which means Graham and Yvonne must be there too, a situation which is costing the family more money.

And Claudine is worried that another surgery could cost her the use of her legs.

"I don't care if I end up in a wheelchair, I just cannot tolerate the excruciating pain anymore," she said.

"I have to find a solution. I need to be able to care for my children. I will fight for them. We've been through a lot and I know there is nothing that we cannot handle together as a family."

But if Claudine loses the ability to walk that would incur extra costs for the family in order to modify their house to accommodate a wheelchair.

A group of adoring friends back home in the Nambucca have set up a GoFundMe page for Claudine, who was reluctant to ask for help at first.

"I feel like they've got my back...excuse the bad pun," she said. "I'd move heaven and earth for these people. I've honestly never felt more loved."

If you feel you could help lift some of the financial pressure from the Snow family in this trying time, you could make a donation via their GoFundMe page.

"Not everyone gets the same road, but we feel like we have been through our share."

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