Eloise Lennox - Home and Away Characters

Eloise Lennox (2003)
Suzanne McEachern
Episodes: 3550-3641

Eloise was a new Year 8 student at Summer Bay High in the same class as Max Sutherland. Max was instantly smitten with her when she joined the class and quickly befriended her. This caused some concern for the town’s adults when the truth about Eloise came out: she was dying of leukaemia but wanted to go on living the life of a normal teenager for as long as possible. Max insisted on sticking by her anyway. One of the few other students brave enough to get close to Eloise was Caitlin, Max’s old girlfriend, and Eloise asked Max to make sure that Caitlin didn’t think that Eloise was stealing her boyfriend.

Max resolved to make Eloise’s last few months as happy as possible and asked her for a list of wishes she wanted granted. As part of the list, he arranged for a special meal for himself and Eloise, along with Eloise’s parents and Rhys and Beth, at the Sutherlands’ house. By then, Eloise was starting to show clear signs of being ill, having a nosebleed at school. Max made a speech during the meal where he thanked Eloise for being his friend. Afterwards, the pair shared a kiss and Eloise admitted that had been on the list as well but she’d been too embarrassed to write it down.

When Max’s pet rat died, Eloise joined his family in holding a funeral service for the rat, where she made a speech about how no life was wasted which had brought joy to others. She was absent from school for several weeks, being too ill to attend, but thanked Max for being strong enough to stay around her while she was sick.

Max wrote to a charity that helped terminally ill young people for help with another item on Eloise’s list: a meal at an expensive restaurant for the two of them, complete with a ride in a limousine. After they’d shared the meal together, Eloise died in Max’s arms on the journey home.