Little Annabelle bumped her head. What happened next turned her life upside down

The most innocuous incident for a little Australian girl at childcare turned into the family’s worst nightmare.

Annabelle, 3, needs your help.

It was just like any other morning in May for Brendan and Melissa Horne and their three-year-old girl, Anna. Wake up. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Childcare drop off.

But the most innocuous incident that day would turn their lives upside down.

“She tripped on another kid’s foot at daycare and bumped her head,” Brendan tells news.com.au from the family home in Alstonville, half way between Lismore and Ballina in the NSW Northern Rivers region.

The “bump” would be hidden beneath Anna’s beautiful blonde curls for several days. At a family dinner a week later, as her mum played with her hair, she noticed the lump was still there.

At this stage, it was the size of a 20c coin.

Several days passed and, while washing Anna’s hair, the couple noticed the bump was worse than before.

“It was just red and looked very angry,” Brendan says.

The couple listened to their instincts and showed a local GP. They were told to keep an eye on it but as days went on it “got bigger and angrier”.

Nurses at the clinic took a second look and recommended the family pay a visit to a local hospital.

Anna with her father, Brendan.

Doctor’s checked Anna’s bloods. Her platelets were all fine and there was no apparent need for concern. It could’ve been a cist, doctor’s said.

But the nagging worry did not subside. The bump was now the size of a mandarin and Brendan and Melissa took Anna to the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

On the morning of the appointment, while getting Anna dressed, Brendan noticed bruises on her legs. He suspected rough play with the family’s new puppy was the cause but doctors knew it was a sign of something much worse.

“The doctor asked if she had any other symptoms and when I showed him the bruises, he said: ‘Mate, I hope I’m wrong but that’s a telltale sign of Leukemia’.”

In the whirlwind few days that followed, Anna was taken for scans, met by an oncologist and admitted to the oncology ward. Her platelet count had dropped to just one and she was diagnosed with B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Anna and children just like her need your help.

“You always hear about these things and you never think it’ll happen to you,” Brendan says.

The couple’s “miracle baby”, who was conceived after years of trying and just two weeks shy of what would have been their first IVF appointment, is fighting for her life.

She is taking it like a warrior, her dad says.

On shaving her head, Anna says her “hair had gone on holiday to Melbourne’’. She lovingly refers to her nasal tube as “spaghetti” and treats it “like it’s her friend’’.

Her day-to-day life is far from easy and something no three-year-old should ever face.

She takes oral chemotherapy tablets at home, and endures weekly chemotherapy at hospital. But her chances of beating cancer have been given an extra boost thanks to a clinical trial she is taking part in.

Doctors from the Children’s Medical Research Institute say the trial could increase her chances of survival by 10 per cent.

But Anna and others just like her need more help.

Anna is part of a medical trial that will increase her chances of survival by 10 per cent.

How you can help

Children’s Medical Research Institute Scientist Professor Tony Cesare understands how important it is for children like Anna to be given every chance.

“As scientists we are working hard every day to better understand cancer so that we can improve treatments and ultimately outcomes for children,” he said.

“It is heart breaking for parents to watch their young children go through these incredibly harsh treatments, so any way we can lessen that impact, would be incredible.”

Professor Cesare and his team can’t do the essential work saving young lives without help — and without donations.

This October he is urging as many people as possible to join a cycling challenge that “helps us get one step closer to making life-changing advances”.

The Great Cycle Challenge, which started in 2013, sees Australians of all ages and abilities set personal riding goals throughout October to fight kids’ cancer — the single largest killer of children in Australia.

Brendan and his good friend Tony will be riding for 24 hours straight as part of the Anna’s Warriors team.

All donations go to the Children’s Medical Research Institute.

“It’s about trying to chalk up as many kilometres as we can,” Brendan says.

“I’ll ride until either the wheels fall off or I do — probably the latter.”

Meanwhile, Anna has a long road ahead. She will be part of the medical trial for three months before a short break and then the commencement of oral chemotherapy.

“We’re just hoping that everything goes like we want it to,” Brendan says.

You can donate to support Anna’s Warriors here.

Originally published as Little Annabelle bumped her head. What happened next turned her life upside down