Fundraiser set up for 3-year-old cancer battler from the Burdekin

A horror diagnosis has rocked a North Queensland family of four, but they’re refusing to give up, fighting on to give their adorable youngster a chance at life.

Elenna with mum Maria, brother Reuben and dad Marty. Photo: Supplied.

Before she had even turned three-years-old, Elenna Savorgnan was already locked into a fight for her life.

The bubbly, cheeky, adorable youngster her mother Maria and father Marty welcomed into the world had already found a love for dance and painting, but none of the fledging family members had any idea what was coming – for them, she was just Elenna, their funny, loveable daughter..

“Ever since she was a little baby, she’s just been obsessed with kids. She likes to pretend play that she’s a mum, and she’ll hold a little baby doll and rock it and feed it,” Maria said.

“She loved to dance, loved to play. She had this beautiful curly brown hair with little ringlets – but that’s all gone now.”

Elenna with mum Maria and dad Marty. Photo: Supplied.

Gone, because after their beautiful young girl turned two, they received the worst news imaginable.

Just months after Elenna had first learned to walk she was learning all over again; recovering from extensive brain surgery to address a Group 3 Medulloblastoma – a rare and aggressive form of childhood brain cancer that carries a grim prognosis.

“Around June of last year, she started having this vomiting that would come and go, she would wake up screaming, she was scratching me, she kept taking shower after shower,” Maria said.

“You could tell she was in pain and that something was wrong, I kept taking her to the local hospital, but in the end we were told the most likely cause was a virus.”

Eventually, after taking Elenna from their home in the Burdekin to Townsville for a secondary opinion, scans discovered a lesion on her brain.

Elenna Savorgnan. Photo: Supplied.

“It all happened fairly quickly from there, we flew down to Brisbane for surgery. After the surgery, she couldn’t walk for about two months – they’d found a one centimetre mass, right on her cerebellum, which is where your speech and your balance and everything is controlled.”

Elenna began radiation treatment after her third birthday, counting down the days until she could begin treatment, but tragically, chemotherapy and other treatment methods proved ineffective.

“We were told that it was continuing to grow. Basically, it had metastasised through her brain and spine. They described it like a ‘sugar coating’. It’s just sprinkled throughout,” Maria said.

With no more effective treatment options at hand, doctors told Maria and Marty that they had come to the end of the road.

But the parents have refused to give up, starting up a GoFundMe to support their family as they continue the fight to find answers that might save their girl who’s already been through so much.

Elenna with mum, Maria, dad Marty and her little brother Reuben. Photo: Supplied.

“We are now searching everywhere, across Australia and around the world, for any treatment, trial, or chance that could help Elenna. We don’t have a clear path yet. We’re still waiting on answers, still hoping for options. But we know that when the moment comes, we’ll need to move fast. We want to be ready,” the family wrote on their online fundraiser that has already garnered nearly $6000 in donations.

“I’ve had so many people reaching out,” Maria said.

“Even people without medical experience reaching out because they might have heard of something. Everyone’s trying to help, and it’s just amazing.”

At the moment, the family is pursuing further treatment in Townsville, with an aim to prolonging Elenna’s life until the next answer can be found.

“We’re searching everywhere. I’ve reached out to the United States, Germany, locally here in Australia,” Maria said.

If you have information that could help, or you wish to donate, you can do so here.

Originally published as Fundraiser set up for 3-year-old cancer battler from the Burdekin