Annabelle Potts was a happy little girl last week, and with good reason. She received her last radiotherapy treatment after having them daily for the past six weeks.
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Sadly, this is not the end of the fight for the three-year-old, it is only a step to buy her more time in the hope that a cure can be found.
Annabelle was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a highly aggressive brain tumor on December 30 last year and the family were given the devastating news that it was inoperable and Annabelle had only one to three months to live without treatment.
“The Sydney Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House have been wonderful to us,” Annabelle’s father Adam said. “They have done everything they can to make sure that Annabelle has everything she needs and is as comfortable as possible.”
Local woman Natasha Batinich, a friend of Annabelle’s grandmother Jody Webster, was able to put the family in contact with Dr Charlie Teo, renowned Neurosurgeon, but again, the family’s hopes were dashed when he concurred with the diagnosis that the tumor was inoperable.
The family’s hope now rests in finding a clinical trial that will be suitable for Annabelle, and are looking to the Kid’s Cancer Centre (KCC), which has been focused on providing care to children and adolescents with cancer and blood diseases for over 50 years.
Adam and Kathie have been in contact with Dr Zieglar from UNSW and received this response:
“Focusing on the clinical trials at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, we really would like to see the state or federal government supporting this, rather than relying on charitable donations,” Dr Ziegler wrote. “In many other states (eg Victoria and Queensland), this is largely funded by the state government. In NSW, we receive a small amount of funding from the Cancer Institute NSW, but only enough to fund approximately 1.5 trials managers out of the total requirement of 10-12.”
Adam and Kathie are currently writing to the NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research, Brad Hazzard, appealing for government funding to find a cure, and praying it will be in time.
