‘I need to leave my son behind to save my daughter’s life’: Mum’s heartbreaking reality
Mum-of-two Breanna Smith must leave her non-verbal son behind in Adelaide to save her 16-month-old daughter’s life after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Lifestyle
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A mother-of-two has been forced to face the unimaginable reality of leaving her non-verbal autistic son behind in Adelaide while she saves her daughter’s life.
Breanna Smith and Michael Wilkinson’s beautiful 16-month-old daughter Aniah-Rose Wilkinson was diagnosed with ependymoma which is a form of brain cancer in late August after she began vomiting out of nowhere.
She underwent a mammoth 11-hour surgery to remove a majority of the peach-size tumour and now must undergo proton beam therapy in the United States to kill the remaining cancer cells.
“It’s very scary knowing I’m going to have to leave my son to save my daughter’s life,” the 25-year-old said.
“We do have radiation therapy here but the radiation therapy that we have … is not suitable for a child … I don’t want her to just survive, I want her to thrive.”
Heartbreakingly Zeke Pitts, Ms Smith’s five-year-old son, does not understand what is happening to his sister or why he has had to stay with his dad.
“I see my little boy not understanding why mummy isn’t coming home, why mummy isn’t picking him up like she usually does,” Ms Smith, from Klemzig, said.
“It’s hard to explain to a non-verbal child why things are different and why he can’t come home.
“In part I feel like it’s good he doesn’t understand because I don’t have to tell him that his sister unfortunately has brain cancer, but the hard part of that is not being able to explain why things are different, why mum isn’t coming home and why his sister isn’t coming home.”
Ms Smith rushed little Aniah-Rose to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital on August 22 after her GP believed nothing was wrong.
“I had no idea what I was in for the day I walked in,” she said.
“It was pretty easy for them (the doctors) to determine she was vomiting due to increased pressure in her head.”
The following day a MRI confirmed the 16-month-old had a peach-sized brain tumour.
“I froze … you never expect to be that parent, you never expect this to happen to your child,” Ms Smith said.
“I was in disbelief … right then my world changed forever … our lives would never be the same.
“They said something that really stuck with me … they said she just got unlucky.
“This little girl, just starting her life and this is how she’s starting her life, fighting such a nasty disease that has taken so many people all over the world … she doesn’t deserve that.”
While doctors have been able to remove a majority of the tumour, a biopsy confirmed the worst — chemotherapy would be unable to destroy the remaining cells and the young family will need to travel to Florida for proton beam therapy to save Aniah-Rose’s life.
Adelaide was due to open a proton beam therapy unit at the Adelaide Bragg Centre in 2023 however there are concerns as to whether it will open at all due to international financial disputes.
Aniah-Rose is set to undergo six weeks of treatment in Florida in six weeks time if doctors are able to get the fluid in her brain and an infection she has contracted under control.
“I pray that my baby girl will get through this, I have faith she’s already proven to be a fighter,” Ms Smith said.
“She will win this fight.”
If you’d like to donate to Aniah-Rose, you can here.
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