When five-year-old Annabelle Potts issued a challenge on her ‘Love for Annabelle’ Facebook page asking everyone to take part in the ‘Lemon Face Challenge’, she asked not for herself, but for ‘other little kids like me who have lumps in their heads.’
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Annabelle has been fighting Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) for nearly two years and the ‘lumps’ she refers to are the inoperable tumours, for which there is currently no cure.
Brain cancer kills more children in Australia every year than any other disease, yet very little research is undertaken due to a lack of available funding.
In the case of DIPG, radiation treatments offered to diagnosed children offer only a life extension, not a cure, and they are the same treatments that have been offered for more than 50 years.
When Annabelle was first diagnosed in 2016, her parents Adam and Kathie were told by the doctors at the Sydney Children’s Hospital to ‘take her home and make memories with her.’
Annabelle was accepted into a treatment in Monterrey, Mexico, where the doctors had achieved some success, using a combination of targeted chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Although this treatment seemed to work for a while, her latest results have shown that the tumours have returned.
In the past few weeks, Annabelle has undergone a very intense round of radiation.
In true Annabelle style, where most adults would struggle with this treatment, she sings her way through it, entertaining those around her.
When her mother asked Annabelle the other day what she could do to cheer her up, Annabelle asked if she could ask people to do Lemon Face challenges.
The Lemon Face Challenge is believed to have started in America to raise awareness for DIPG, much like the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS a few years ago.
It involves cutting a lemon into four and then recording a video of yourself biting into it.
Upload your recording to Facebook, share and tag ‘Love for Annabelle’ so she can see it.
Although Annabelle now has partial facial paralysis and can no longer smile, she loves to laugh at the faces people pull when they bite their lemon.
Since Annabelle issued this challenge on Facebook, she has had some famous Australians take it up, including the popular children’s group The Wiggles.
On Tuesday morning, Channel 9’s Today Show also took up the challenge.
Businesses and individuals in Harden have shown their support as a community and are uploading their videos, with more expected to come in the next week.
