Venessa Harris mourns the friends she lost from cancer as she looks to the future

She had just won a trip to Paris and a three-year modelling contract. Then came the news that threatened to steal it all away.

Venessa Harris, who was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma as a 12 year old. She’s now 17 and still coming to terms with life post-treatment. Photo: Lachie Millard

AT 12, Venessa Harris won a trip to Paris and a three-year modelling contract. But instead of strutting the catwalk, she ended up in a hospital bed, losing her hair and having to learn to walk again after being diagnosed with life-threatening bone cancer.

Almost five years after doctors found a rare tumour in her right leg, she still hasn’t been to Europe but these days, modelling for the Longreach State High student has largely lost its lure.

Self-transplant saves teen’s arm

Brain cancer diagnosis at four months

Melon-sized tumour found

“The modelling stuff doesn’t mean much — especially after losing so many people,” the 17-year-old said quietly.

Venessa spent a year in the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane with Ewing sarcoma — a type of cancer that begins in the bones or the soft tissue surrounding the bones — at the start of 2015.

A dozen other children being treated for cancer at the hospital while she was there have since died, including two teenage girls also diagnosed with sarcoma, Bella Harry and Jess Moore.

The trio lost their hair together and when Venessa turned 13, in the middle of chemotherapy, it was Bella and Jess who helped her celebrate in hospital.

Venessa Harris won a three-year modelling contract as a 12-year-old but within a few months was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Photo: Paul Guy.

“We all had a nice lunch. We were all on chemo so we weren’t too hungry, but we had a really good time,” Venessa recalled. “Losing my mates, that’s been the hardest thing.”

As she approaches the fourth anniversary of the completion of her treatment, which included having her right femur removed and replaced with a metal one, the Year 11 student admits she’s still struggling with life post cancer.

“No-one tells you afterwards, nothing’s the same,” she said. “You think once you’re done, you’re going to go back to a normal life but everything’s different.”

Her Mum Karen Monaghan said the mental trauma of childhood cancer had been harder to deal with than the physical impact.

“Moving on with life has been extremely difficult and chaotic for Venessa to manoeuvre,” Ms Monaghan said.

“We’ve discovered that it is way harder to live life post chemo than it is to live through chemo,” she said. “Venessa has had to go through her teenage years grieving for her friends. It makes life extremely difficult because my child feels guilty that she’s lived and her friends have died.

“It’s so traumatic on everyone involved. The parents that you meet along the way, you hold the hands of these beautiful people and some of their children, they don’t come out the other end.”

Venessa’s younger brother, Tom, was 10 when she was diagnosed. At the time, the only people he knew who had been diagnosed with cancer had died.

Venessa Harris, then 13, with older sister, Amber, and her parents Karen Monaghan and Kelly Harris. Photo: Paul Guy

“He was so scared that Venessa was going to die,” Ms Monaghan recalled. “He didn’t handle things very well. He went into the wardrobe in Venessa’s hospital room and he refused to come out. He ate in the cupboard, he played in the cupboard. The only time he left was when he was leaving the hospital.

“We had to get an occupational therapist to work with him to get him out of the cupboard.”

Now 14, Tom’s education has been affected by the upheaval of his sister’s cancer treatment.

“He really struggles with school,” Ms Monaghan said. “He tries very hard, he gives 100 per cent but it’s difficult to get the mind focused and back on track. He plays football, which is his greatest love, second to riding a motorbike. Education is now on the backburner. We just want our kids to be happy. We don’t want stress anymore.”

After their cancer experience, the family has been fund raising for sarcoma research.

Venessa, who was part of a trial testing a new chemotherapy agent, on top of standard treatment, will use her modelling skills as an ambassador for the Birdsville races tomorrow and Saturday.

But she's eyeing a possible career in the cattle industry once she finishes high school.

“They told me I was never allowed to ride a horse again. But I’ve done it a few times,” she said, with a laugh. “I’ll be right.”

Longreach schoolgirl Venessa Harris who was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma in early 2015, just months after winning a three-year modelling contract in a competition. Photo: Lachie Millard

About four months before her sarcoma diagnosis, she won a hotly contested modelling competition run by Brisbane-based agency Tamblyn Models. The prizes included a three-year modelling contract and a trip to Paris. But cancer intervened.

Her paediatric oncologist Wayne Nicholls said about 20 children were treated for sarcoma at the Queensland Children’s Hospital annually.

Dr Nicholls said although childhood cancer generally had a five-year survival rate of 85 per cent, the outcomes for bone sarcomas had not changed in about 30 years.

He said five-year survival for Ewing sarcoma was about 80 per cent and for osteosarcoma, it was about 70 per cent.

“I think we’re really on the brink of a change, we’ve got things on the horizon that will help a lot,” Dr Nicholls said. “But the only way we’re going to keep improving outcomes is through research.”

The Australian New Zealand Sarcoma Association has been involved in more than 30 sarcoma-related studies and clinical trials, both locally and internationally, since its inception in 2008.

For more information on sarcoma, or to donate to ANZSA research: sarcoma.org.au