Bikes and ballet as Elsie beats cancer
Elsie Lee laughs, loves her new bike, and lives.
None of these things seemed likely three years ago.
Her father Tom Lee often remembers the children who started cancer treatment at the same time as Elsie, but did not survive.
Elsie, now 4 and looking forward to school next September, was taken to hospital aged 10 months with a lump on her face.
That lump was the visible sign of a cancer that had started out as neuroblastoma in the kidneys. Her body was, by then, riddled with cancerous tumours.
Over the coming year she would earn more than 500 beads – each one signifying a treatment she received.
It was an extraordinarily unlucky diagnosis as only about 11 children each year are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in New Zealand.
When Stuff last caught up with Elsie at her Pukerua Bay home north ofWellington, in 2018, there was a 50-50 chance the cancer would return.
She is not completely clear yet but her parents now have more reason for hope. She just had her latest six-monthly MRI scan and it showed no sign of cancer.
Life returns to normal between scans but the stress started to mount before the date with the MRI machine, for which Elsie had to have a general anaesthetic. Now they are trying to train her to stay still, so she can avoid the anaesthetic.
‘‘The other day she asked why we have to go to hospital all the time,’’ her father said.
But otherwise, these days, Elsie is just another happy child.
Her parents regularly carry reams of her art work home from day care, she is loving ballet, and is excited about being an older sister in June.
It is a far cry from the sick girl a few years ago, who still managed to smile despite surgery, radiation, 10 rounds of chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant, feeding through a tube, and immunotherapy treatment.
Her family’s ordeal saw them establish non-profit group Neuroblastoma Childhood Cancer NZ (NBCCNZ), which aimed to raise awareness, get earlier diagnosis, better treatments for patients, support families and connect people whose kids are affected by childhood cancers.
Child Cancer Foundation chief executive Robyn Kiddle has previously said neuroblastoma was an invasive disease that – like all childhood cancers – had a huge impact on children and those around them.
It was the most common form of cancer for children in their first year and made up 10 per cent of all cancers in children aged from 1 to 4.