Hoping for Life

Marian story:

This is the story of my sister's child.

Two years ago nine-year-old Marian and his family received the worst Christmas present of all, a diagnosis of cancer.

Marian lives with her mum and dad, Alina and Adrian, on their semi-rural property. According to Alina, Marian loves animals, especially the family dogs and his favourite stuffed toy, a donkey.

In the six months leading up to her diagnosis, Marian hadn’t been herself and was suffering from terrible back pain. He had many tests – including an MRI – to try and figure out what was wrong, but the results came back clear.

However, Marian is pain just got worse. Then one Sunday two weeks before Christmas it all came to a horrifying head:

“He got out of the shower and went to bend down to pick a towel up off the floor and she collapsed. He just couldn’t move”.

Within 24 hours, Marian was diagnosed with leukaemia. His shocked mum and dad had to explain the diagnosis to their nine-year-old whilst dealing with the agony of knowing she might die.

“We got called into a room at the hospital. They told us she had acute lymphocytic leukaemia and needed to start treatment immediately.

Finding out what it actually was – cancer – was a huge shock. And it all happened so quickly.”

A year has passed and he needs an emergency operation.