Bella faces cancer battle with song and dance
SHE’S a singing, dancing, smiling little girl — but Frankston South youngster Bella Allan is battling the fight of her life.
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AN AUSTRALIAN first medical trial has all but cured Bella Allan.
The eight-year-old is battling T-Cell Leukemia, a rare cancer with a rather bleak outlook.
Resistant to chemotherapy and returning after a bone-marrow transplant last June Bella’s cancer is in the infant cells — which makes it even tougher to beat.
But the Frankston South youngster doesn’t let the illness get her down — she’s singing and dancing her way through the peaks and troughs of her battle.
When her leukaemia returned Bella was lucky enough to begin an immunotherapy trial at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital late last year — under the watchful eye of St Jude’s Hospital in Memphis.
Immune cells trial at Royal Children’s Hospital leaves woman free of leukaemia
While hopeful the trial, one of few available to Bella, would be successful — it’s results shocked doctors at both hospitals.
Biopsies saw a reduction in her cancer from 28 per cent to just four per cent.
The sad reality is that despite the good news, Bella’s cancer will soon become resistant to the drugs — so she is now preparing for another bone marrow transplant, which will likely take place on March 16.
Last time the transplant used stem cells from an unidentified donor — but this time her mum Ally will be the donor.
It’s been a long battle to here, and while there will be some tough times Bella and her family are hoping this time they can say goodbye to cancer for good.
Something wasn’t right
BELLA WAS seven-years-old when she was first diagnosed — she had been battling a bad cold on and off for almost four weeks.
Ally took her to the doctor, who thought she might have Glandular Fever — but it wasn’t the case.
Blood tests, taken by her local GP, showed something wasn’t right and Ally was told to take Bella to Monash Hospital as soon as possible.
They stayed in Emergency overnight and it wasn’t until they were in the lift in the way up to the ward that the bad news came to light.
“There was a woman in the lift with us, and she asked me if I knew who she was and I said no, and she told me she was a cancer doctor,” Ally said.
“So that’s when it hit me.”
Treatment
BELLA’S INITIAL treatment included two aggressive courses of chemotherapy but her cancer was sadly resistant.
From there, Bella’s parents Ally and Troy requested to take part in a trial for her type of leukaemia at the Royal Children’s Hospital and they’ve treated her ever since.
That’s where she had a bone-marrow transplant followed by six months straight in hospital, four of those in isolation, including over Christmas and Easter.
Bella was deemed 100 days leukaemia free in June last year but the rare and aggressive cancer soon returned.
“When she relapsed we were pretty much told there wasn’t any options for her because every drug they tried, nothing had a response,” Ally said.
“We were pretty much told there was nothing we could do for her.”
Refusing to give up, Ally and Troy started searching far and wide to find something that could offer some hope.
And soon enough Bella’s oncologist and co-ordinator were helping the Allan’s apply for studies around the world.
“But sadly pretty much all of them were saying there was nothing they could do,” she said.
St Jude’s Hospital in Memphis was the only hospital doing different studies into Bella’s type of cancer.
So when her oncologist went to a conference in the United States they went and discussed Bella’s case personally.
St Judes agreed to take Bella for the next round of trials in Memphis — a dream come true for Ally and her family.
But travelling halfway across the globe, leaving husband Troy and her two other kids at home was always going to be a battle.
That’s where the Royal Children’s Hospital got involved and decided they could offer the same treatment in Melbourne — under the watchful eye of St Judes.
“It’s so good to have such a massive research hospital behind her in the US,” Ally said.
“Until you’re in this situation you don’t realise how many different forms of leukaemia there are.
“Bella’s is a T-Cell leukaemia, which is in her immune system so a lot of the new trials and transplants that use T-Cells to recognise cancer in the B-Cells she can’t have.”
In simple terms, Bella’s cancer makes up 15 per cent of Leukemia sufferers and on top of that she’s got an early precursor type too, which means her cancer is in cells in their infancy.
It’s a very stubborn type of leukaemia and regenerates easily, which is why she didn’t respond to chemotherapy or the bone marrow transplant.
“We didn’t just hit the trump card with leukaemia, we got the s*&^ type of leukaemia as well,” Ally said.
Bella started the St Jude’s trial in December, which saw almost instant results.
The immunotherapy drug, along side her other medication, acts like a protein blocker and stops the cancer from growing.
After round one, her biopsy results had gone from 28 per cent leukaemia to four per cent.
A month later, her biopsy showed that it was down to 1.9 per cent.
“They couldn’t believe it and started looking at other options, because they know in time she’ll become resistant to that too,” Ally said.
What’s next?
DOCTORS AT St Judes recommended starting another immunotherapy drug on top of the one she was already on and to start preparing for another bone marrow transplant — this time from Ally.
Before the procedure, Bella will undergo seven days of high dose chemotherapy which will wipe out her counts.
It’s when she will be at her lowest in terms of catching infections.
On the day of the transplant Ally will undergo a four-hour procedure at the Royal Melbourne Hospital which will see blood taken out of one arm, the stem cells withdrawn, and then the blood put back in.
The cells will be transported to the Royal Childrens Hospital where Bella will undergo the transplant — which is very similar to a blood transfusion.
It will take 12-14 days for the stem cells to make their way to her bone marrow and start showing up in tests.
“Then we have a couple of weeks of just sitting and waiting for everything to happen,” Ally said.
“100 days is the big window that is really crucial to the transplant taking.”
Strength in numbers
ALLY SPEAKS about Bella’s illness with a strength that is impressive — her little girl lying in the hospital bed next to her, feeling flat after another round of medication.
“It is what it is, it’s not what I want it to be, but I can’t change it, so I have to put one foot after the other,” she explains.
“I have to be her strength as well, I can’t be broken in front of her.”
Ally also says the support from her immediate family — all 21 of them- has been amazing.
But it’s Bella’s million personalities that have got her through.
“She’s a very stubborn strong-willed girl, she’s quite shy until she gets to know you and once she becomes comfortable — she’s very eccentric,” Ally laughs.
Anything she can do herself, Bella does — including taking medication on her own, taking cannulas out and removing dressings.
She’s also become quite the online superstar — her family sharing videos of her dancing and singing while in hospital isolation.
Her story shared on http://gofundme.com/fightforbella1.
And while she might be a very sick little girl, Bella’s certainly up for the challenge.
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