Heartbreaking: Meet The Little Girl Diagnosed With Breast Cancer At Age 8

Chrissy Turner, 8, had been diagnosed with breast cancer, a condition even most grown women would struggle to battle with. She was a little tomboy who loves playing Lego with her friends after school.

According to Mirror, Chrissy’s parents both had cancer themselves so they know the struggle that lies ahead for their little girl. The odds of a family all getting cancer are very slim and only a handful of breast cancer cases in youngsters Chrissy’s age occur across the world each year.

Speaking on breaking the sad news to her daughter, Annette who is Chrissy’s mum, said:

”Telling my little girl, who’s only eight years old, that she has breast cancer was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever had to do. Seeing the look on her face. She gasped and started crying: ‘Mummy I’m scared. I’m so scared.

I just held her and said, ‘We’re going to be here for you and we’re going to fight this. You’re brave. You’re going to win’. Later, when Chrissy was in bed, I collapsed on the floor saying, ‘Why my baby girl? Why couldn’t it be me? Why has an eight-year-old got breast cancer?”

In late October last year, Chrissy first felt a hard, square-shaped lump under her right breast nipple.

Her 43-year-old mum said: ”‘I found this lump. I’ve been scared to say anything because I don’t want it to be something bad’. It was unmistakable – you couldn’t not see it. It was right under her nipple and stuck out. She said it hurt. We said, ‘Sweetie, don’t worry about it. We’ll get it looked at’.”

In 2000, Annette had survived a rare form of cervical cancer herself. Eight years later, in 2008, after her father died of Leukaemia, Annette’s husband, Troy, 43, was also diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

After going for rigorous chemotherapy treatment, Troy was told his cancer was in remission.

Three years later, in 2011, Troy went for a check-up and doctors found hotspots in his lymph nodes that they say are not aggressive enough to treat. He is been placed on a “wait and watch” routine since then.

So when Chrissy told Annette about her lump, mum’s first thought was cancer. So she was taken to hospital but Chrissy’s paediatrician claimed it was just an infection.

”The doctor brushed it off and just wanted to give her antibiotics,” Annette says.

”I left with the prescription in disbelief. The lump has been there for a couple of months. It wasn’t red or swollen.

“She didn’t have a fever or feel sick. The lump was not oozing and did not look like an infection under the skin, which is usually red and kind of hot. This was nothing like that.”

Chrissy’s worried parents were not convinced enough about the doctor’s report, they went further for an ultrasound to investigate the bump but when the Paediatrician failed to respond, Annette booked one with a local hospital.

That afternoon Chrissy received an ultrasound at the same hospital that treated her dad, an equipment specialist at the local air force base.

Some days later a surgeon examined Chrissy and Annette and Troy he thought their little girl had Fibroadenoma – a non-cancerous breast tumour.

”He didn’t want to damage breast tissue and suggested waited to see what happens in six months’,” Annette recalls.

The Turners couldn’t wait that long, they decided they wanted the lump to be surgically removed. Their brave decision saved Chrissy’s life. One week after her operation, the surgeon called Annette Turners and told her:

”Chrissy had breast cancer – a rare form called Secretory Carcinoma, which affects one in a million women in the US.” The surgeon was shocked too by the results.

Annette says: ”Bless his heart, he had never seen anything like it before.

”When he got the call from the pathologist he said, ‘I’m not calling these people and telling them. I want another opinion’.

”After hearing the news Troy and I sat in the kitchen and cried together, held each other and tried to lift each other up.”

Troy says: ”I was really numb. Mostly disbelief and then I started thinking of the devastation because I’ve dealt with cancer so much and then trying to figure out how to tell her. We had no idea how to do that.”

Keke Palmer Reflects On Being In ‘Inappropriate’ Relationship With An Older Man When She Was A Teen

The proud mum-of-two worked hard to ensure her sick daughter did not sense her fear – and fury.

Chrissy’s team of three doctors decided it was best for her to have a Mastectomy. A heartbreaking choice for a girl who had not reached the puberty stage.

December last year, Chrissy had a two-and-a-half hour operation to remove tissue from her right breast that hadn’t even developed. The innocent girl is left with a scar about 4 inches long and no Nipple. For now, Chrissy is just happy the cancer is gone and when she gets to puberty stage, with her left breast developing, the surgeon will insert a Tissue Expander (like a balloon) on the right side and slowly increase that so that both sides are equal.

Once she has fully grown, a permanent breast implant will be put in place.

In January,great joy filled the heart of Chissy’s family as they received great news that an ultrasound showed Chrissy is now cancer free.

But would be going for check-ups every 3- months for the foreseeable future. Now Chrissy is keen to go back to just being that Lego-loving tomboy.

She said: ”It was scary knowing what I was going to go through. I didn’t know how they were doing the surgery.”

Chrissy added: ”I thought they would probably just do one little cut or something but they did bigger. But I feel better. I’m playing more.”

Her dad, full of admiration for how Chrissy has coped said: ”She’s just amazing. She’s a tough little kiddo.”

Here is Annette’s advice to all parents:

Annette says: ”If a medical diagnosis doesn’t feel right, fight to get a second opinion. It’s OK to go with your gut instinct – it’s there for a reason.”

She adds: ”At first I felt our family must be horribly unlucky. Now I realize the complete opposite. We are the luckiest family on earth because all three of us survived cancer. We’re very blessed.”