Family moves 200km in bid to save daughter Annabelle Horne, 3, from cancer
A family has moved 200km to Brisbane in a desperate bid to save their three-year-old daughter who has received a devastating cancer diagnosis.
Southeast
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A NSW family has opened up about their decision to move to Brisbane in a desperate bid to save their beloved daughter after a devastating diagnosis.
Annabelle Horne, three, was rushed to Brisbane Children’s Hospital just over two weeks ago after mysterious symptoms stumped her local doctors.
Her father Brendan Horne said they found a small lump on Annabelle’s head about two months ago.
At first they did not think a “great deal” of it, as her childcare centre told them she had tripped and fallen a few days earlier.
But Mr Horne said the lump began to baffle doctors in their Alstonville, northern NSW, hometown as it “seemed to get a little bit bigger and then a bit angrier – redder”.
“And then she started developing lumps on her lymph nodes,” he said.
“She had one on the side of her neck that went from pea sized to almost golf ball sized overnight.”
Despite countless trips to their doctors and a hospital he said everyone was “stumped with it”.
“When she was presenting, the platelets in her blood tests were fine, the red blood cells were fine – nothing to indicate cancer,” Mr Horne explained.
“Eventually it was sort of decided look, we’ve exhausted all the options here but we need to find you an answer as to what this is.”
Mr Horne said he and his wife packed up and drove three hours to Brisbane a fortnight ago to seek specialist care at the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
“As painful as it is to say, but if your child has cancer, the Queensland Children’s Hospital is where you want to be,” he said.
Mr Horne said Annabelle started developing bruises “all over” her legs about the same time.
They had assumed the bruises were from playing with their new puppy which they bought to support Annabelle’s high-functioning autism.
But Mr Horne said they soon found out the bruises were a symptom of the cancer.
“As soon as we got in and met the oncologist, he said ‘look guys I really hate to say it and I pray that I’m wrong but the bruises are usually a red flag for leukaemia’,” Mr Horne said.
“Unfortunately they weren’t wrong and she was diagnosed with leukaemia about 10 days ago.”
Annabelle’s platelets were dangerously low and Mr Horne said that without the blood transfusions she received at the QCH she “wouldn’t even have made it through to chemo”.
Mr Horne said the diagnosis was a difficult thing to wrap his head around at first.
“The first couple of days were just grief – you can’t explain it,” he said.
“You hear it happening to other people, you know it exists, but you would just never ever think that it’s going to happen to you.”
“It sounds corny but you find a strength you didn’t know you had.
“It’s almost like a fight or flight parent mode kicks in.”
Since her diagnosis Annabelle has been going through an intense induction stage of chemotherapy.
The family has been provided accommodation at Ronald McDonald House, for which Mr Horne said they were very grateful.
But he said it still felt “like a lifetime ago” that they were at home.
Mr Horne said Annabelle missed her home and “asks about her dog multiple times a day”.
“She’s sort of reaching like a cabin fever stage,” he said.
Annabelle’s mood had been drastically affected by the steroids she was taking and her immunity from infection was weakened by the chemotherapy.
“She can’t understand why she can’t go to the park and play with other kids,” he siad.
Mr Horne said B-ALL leukaemia, the type with which Annelle waw diagnosed, had a 95 per cent survival rate, but still could not help feeling dread at times.
“There’s just that dark voice that just sits in the back of your head and just constantly, you know – ‘is my kid gonna die’?” he said.
Mr Horne said the family would have to wait for results from the first round of chemotherapy to work out their next move.
Neither he nor his wife could work remotely, so he might have to return home to support the family while they stayed in Brisbane.
In their absence, their local community has banded together to raise funds for Annabelle’s treatment.
The bakery near their daycare, Wicked Delights, raised more than $3000 by baking pink cupcakes, while the daycare held a “wear pink for Anna day”.
Friends and family were also hoping to host a black-tie gala and were presently seeking donations of sports memorabilia to auction.
They also started a GoFundMe which had raised more than $20,000.
Mr Horne said the support literally brought them to tears.
“I cannot say thank Queensland Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House enogh,” he said.
“The amount that they have done to make sure that we’re okay and that we understand help is there for us, it’s insane.”
He said if he could ask people anything, it would be to donate to Ronald McDonald House and to give blood.
“Those are the things that have truly saved my daughter,” he said.
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