In December 2002, we discovered that our 21 month old daughter Abbie was suffering from a rare cancer called Adrenal Neuroblastoma. After having a tumour removed from her abdomen we were hopeful that Abbie would make a full recovery, however in July 2003 we were devastated to discover that she had relapsed with the cancer spreading to her bones and bone marrow and a secondary tumour developing in
her abdomen. Abbie’s cancer was also NMYC amplified which means that she had the most aggressive type. Abbie responded well to the heavyweight treatment that she underwent – intensive induction chemotherapy, high dose chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and Retinoic acid and was declared free of disease in January 2004. In March 2005 Abbie suddenly started limping and was eventually diagnosed with a stress fracture in her left ankle. Sadly it failed to heal and subsequent investigations in June 2005 showed a relapse in her bone marrow. After several more rounds of chemotherapy and MIBG treatment with stem cell rescue in January 2006 we were hopeful that Abbie would go into remission, however a scan in April 2006 showed the cancer was back. Abbie had a few months of relatively good health but by July 2006 her condition began to rapidly deteriorate and our beautiful daughter died at home on September 11th at 7.36am.
