History:
Monique Squires was about to be four years old when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Her mother and father, Danielle and Darryl Squires, were shocked
"She was complaining of headaches, dizziness, mornings, she was waking up and vomiting, just very randomly, then one day she was turning around, "says Squires
. at the Royal Children's Hospital where later we were told that Monique had a DIPG (Intrinsic Diffin Glioma), a very aggressive brain tumor, and that they could not do anything.
"I've never experienced shock in my life, My whole body shook."
Monique only had a few months to live and received radiation treatment to try to
"We were both crying, saying," There must be something, if it's a miracle, "said Squires.
"The answer we had was" No, there is nothing we can do, sometimes we do not have the answers. "
Monique is Deceased 13 months after being diagnosed, leaving behind her twin sister Zoe, now six, and her older sister Olivia.
At the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, the federal government announced that it would devote $ 5 million to a nationwide trial offering personalized treatment to children with Alzheimer's disease. of high-risk brain cancers.
Launched by Zero Childhood Cancer at the end of 2015, with the Children's Cancer Institute (CCI) in Sydney and the Kids Cancer Center at Sydney Children's Hospital.
ICC Director General Michelle Haber said funding would change the game.
"Brain cancer is the most common solid tumor in children. She said that about 70 children were diagnosed with high-risk brain cancer each year in Australia and that statistics showed that about 40% of them would not survive.
"It's a shocking statistic it has not fundamentally changed for about 30 years," she said.
"This program assumes that the reason we can not cure the majority of these children is that a single size … the" all-out "approach does not work because every child and every cancer is different.
Each child participating in the program will undergo a genetic profile and will be tested for its response to specific medications to determine which are the most effective recovery.
The Squires family, who live near Echuca, in northern Victoria, spent many hours traveling to Melbourne for treatment
"C & # 39; was a difficult trip, full of appointments at the hospital. Squires,
"She had a Make-A-Wish … we went to the Gold Coast and she met her Scooby-Doo idol.
Ms. Squires said that she wanted the trial to give hope to other families.
"It's too late for us, but you can not stop there," she said.
"It gives you hope to talk to those professors and researchers who, in their heart and soul, want to prevent children like Monique from leaving this terrible disease."
Topics:
Cancer,
diseases and disorders,
health,
children,
melbourne-3000
vic,
Sydney 2000
nsw,
echuca-3564
