Hannah Day showing 'zero traces of leukemia'
Four-year-old Victoria girl battling cancer gets first good news in more than a year
A four-year-old girl from Victoria, B.C., who has already battled two different types of cancer during her four short years may finally be catching a break after getting a stem cell transplant.
The first indication things had turned around came in an update to the "Hope for Hannah Day" Facebook page quoting Hannah's mother Brooke Ervin saying, "Big celebration today. Hannah's bone marrow biopsy shows zero traces of leukemia."
"Her chimerism [cells] came back,100 per cent my stem cells, and we are being discharged today! We are not out of the water yet and cannot return to our Victoria home, but this is the best news we can ask for."
Ervin says Hannah has been discharged from the hospital and the family will be living in Vancouver for the next couple of months while doctors monitor Hannah's progress.
She says Hannah still has to return to the hospital three to four times a week for IV medications until her kidneys resume normal functioning.
Hannah was first diagnosed with a rare form of cancer at the age of three, when a malignant tumour was found in her stomach. She underwent intensive treatment and went into remission.
The drug that cured her, however, is thought to have caused her subsequent leukemia.
Hannah is a fighter
Day's family searched for a stem cell donor match while the little girl underwent chemotherapy. However, that treatment dd not go well and her leukemia returned with a vengeance.
In a last ditch attempt to save her, the family decided to try a stem cell transplant. Ervin donated one litre of her stem cells to her daughter in hopes of staving off the cancer.
She says Hannah's tenacity is unbelievable.
"Every time the doctors say something is going to happen, it doesn't and Hannah always seems to fight. You know, when the odds are totally against her, Hannah fights and Hannah is still fighting and seems to beat the odds for everything."
Ervin says only time will tell if the turnaround will last, but their spirits for now, are high, perhaps best summed up by her post on Hannah's Facebook page where Ervin wrote, "We are going to get chocolate-wasted!!!"