Story shared by Dorothy’s mother·

She grew up normal like any other kids, and went to kindergarten when she was only 4 years old just because she wanted to have friends. She loved making friends. She enjoyed going to kindy, playing and dancing with her friends, going home so tired she even fell asleep on the sofa with her uniform still on. Her appetite was so good that she was considered obese!

In early 2017, Dorothy started to became fussier and had bad moods every time. She would frequently complained that she was tired & feverish almost every month. I had to take leave every time she got sick to take care of her. One day, she complained of her body in pain, and cried so hard all night until we had to bring her to the hospital. The doctor said she had normal fever which would subside in a few days, body pains are common symptom of fever. The body pain continued on and off with fever, until we had enough of her crying in pain and we brought her to the hospital again. This time, we received the confirmation that she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).

It was during the middle of her 1^st cycle treatment that Dorothy’s hair began to fall. When she saw her fallen hair, she began to cry because she doesn’t want to be bald. She was afraid people would laugh at her and she would look ugly with no hair. We manage to ask her to shave all her hair, telling her that it is good for the regrowth of new hair after this, and finally she said okay. But still she insisted to use her cap, as she still thought that people would laugh at her.

With her current situation at that time, we had to face a lot of challenges. We avoided crowds, meaning less social activities for her. Dorothy stopped going to school, which meant she won’t be able to meet her friends anymore. We had to control her food intake & took care of her hygiene. We also had be aware of any tiny bit of her current health condition. We even planned to have a new baby, so that we could keep the baby’s cord blood for future use. We were so determined to do anything that we could for her.

With all the challenges that we had to face, finally on August 2019, the doctor told us that she didn’t need take any more medication and treatment. She can now join various school activities & be with her friends (She even joined Karate class every weekend!). We are so relieved and really very thankful to God for giving her another chance to live normally like before.

Story compiled by Bibie