Teen had been in remission for six years before being diagnosed with rare form of cancer

Denise Millan is having to watch her youngest daughter battle in hospital for a second time. This time the ‘social butterfly’ has a super rare cancer on the brain and is in the fight of her young life.

In a cruel case of deja vu, Denise Millan is having to watch her youngest daughter fight cancer for a second time.

Marnee Millan, 17, was diagnosed with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, on December 16 last year.

The plucky Rockhampton teen had been six years in remission after battling and beating Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma, a malignant soft tissue tumour, as a 10-year-old in 2015.

Then it took a 10-month regimen of chemotherapy and radiation.

Mum Denise knows it will take every bit of courage and determination her daughter can muster to come through it this time.

Marnee’s diagnosis is even more devastating given everything was fine at her 12-month check-up in July.

Denise has left her job and moved to Brisbane to be with her daughter for every step of this harrowing journey.

“Marnee when she is well is very sociable, she’s always happy and loves getting out there and doing things,” she said.

“I call her my social butterfly.

“I’m here for Marnee; I want and need to be here - that’s what a mother does.”

Denise said the second cancer diagnosis stopped her in her tracks.

“It’s devastating, especially when you think it’s on the brain,” she said.

“There’s only 40 other people in the world who have had it, so the doctors tell me.

“Because it is so rare, they are still trying to work out the treatment plan.

“The tumour is deep in the right side of her brain, a long cauliflower-type shape, and its position means it is inoperable so they’re going to have to rely on chemo to shrink it.”

Denise said it was around the start of November that Marnee started to get headaches.

“She had her first Covid shot and a week later she started getting headaches and I just assumed it was from that,” she said.

“But the headaches got more and more intense to the point where every time she sat up, she would vomit.”

Denise said she took Marnee several times to the hospital where she was given migraine medication.

She failed to show any improvement and on December 10, Marnee suffered a seizure.

She was at home and her older sister Lexie called an ambulance.

Denise, who was at work more than an hour away, rushed to Rockhampton Hospital.

Marnee Millan in the intensive care unit of the Queensland Children's Hospital.

A CT scan done there showed a mass, as well as swelling on Marnee’s brain.

Marnee suffered two more seizures, becoming unresponsive after the third.

She was intubated and flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

Denise said she was taken straight from the ambulance to theatre, where an external ventricular drain was inserted to drain fluid from her swelling brain.

The following day a biopsy was done, the results of which came back five days later confirming ALCL.

Marnee spent five days in ICU before being transferred to the hospital’s neurological ward.

Denise said that after the insertion of the EVD and the biopsy, Marnee had weakness on her left side, some short-term memory loss and slurred speech.

Her memory and speech are now improving but the left-side weakness remains.

In the week leading up to Christmas, Marnee was in theatre for a lumbar puncture, bone marrow tests and to have a line put in for access for chemotherapy, the first dose of which she received on December 23.

She is due for her second on Thursday.

Marnee was allowed out of hospital for December 27 and is staying with Denise at Ronald McDonald House.

She returns to the hospital for regular blood tests, line care and doctors’ appointments, as well as her chemotherapy sessions.

Denise said Marnee’s four siblings - Rieck, Adam, Jessica and Lexie - were wishing, hoping and praying for a positive outcome.

A gofundme page set up by Rieck and his wife Dana has raised almost $16,000.

Denise said she has been overwhelmed by the support coming from all quarters.

She will soon move to an apartment at The Quest Apartments in Brisbane as part of a national accommodation support program for regional cancer patients run in conjunction with Sony Australia.

“Everyone’s been great down here and everyone in Rockhampton has been great supporting us,” she said.

“It’s awesome to see so many people doing that for us.

“I’m doing a little better this week, better than I was three weeks ago anyway.

“I still cry when I think about Marnee having to go through this all over again.

“But she’s a trooper and she’ll fight all the way.”