The young Vancouver Island girl who beat leukemia after being diagnosed at just four weeks old has relapsed, according to her heartbroken family.
Molly Campbell, who was known as “Baby Molly” during her initial struggle with the disease, is now a toddler and will turn two this month.
She beat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare and often fatal form of the illness, in October 2011 and spent a full year living a normal, healthy life at home in Victoria – but her father told CTV News that all came crashing down on Tuesday.
Molly started running a fever, and was taken to hospital for chimerism tests. They revealed that her leukemia cells have regenerated.
“We’re hanging on,” Dave Campbell said. “It just kind of feels like the beginning again, because we thought we were out of the woods. We were almost two years post-transplant, and that’s when they say you can breathe a sigh of relief.”
On Tuesday night, Molly and her parents were flown to BC Children’s Hospital. They were told she requires intensive chemotherapy, which will once again force her family members to stay in Vancouver regularly to be by her side.
It will also mean a lot of hardship for a very frightened little girl.
“The worst part this time is that little Molly is almost two, and terrified of the needles that have to be put in he spine for testing and treatment,” a post on the Baby Molly website reads.
“She is old enough to ask her parents why this is happening, but not old enough to understand that the doctors are trying to help her. Watching this is agony for the Campbells.”
Family friend Paul Pearson asked the community to again lend their support to the family during this difficult time, either in the form of a donation or a kind message on their website.
“They read them all and it really gives them that strength to know that there are hundreds and thousands of people out there thinking of them and their little baby,” Pearson told CTV News.
To leave a message or donation for Molly, click here
