At just three years of age, Samantha was diagnosed with the most common form of childhood cancer, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).
"Samantha sailed through two and a half years of chemotherapy, and all seemed fine," her mum Gayle said.
But Gayle's joy was short-lived, when six months later Samantha relapsed.
When a child relapses, they need to have much more aggressive treatments to give them the best possible chance of surviving. Unfortunately, it can also have terrible physical and emotional effects on them.
"Samantha ended up in a wheelchair, because she was so weak. She had to be fed through a nasogastric tube; she was all skin and bone. She was so unwell she couldn't play with other children. So she was also very lonely."
To give her the best chance for a cure a decision was made to give Samantha a bone marrow transplant. In preparation for receiving the donor marrow, little Samantha's own immune system had to be destroyed to lessen the risk of her body rejecting it.
"She had extensive chemotherapy and full-body irradiation two weeks before the transplant. The side effects started kicking in; it was absolutely heart-wrenching as a mum to have to watch."
Treatments for many childhood diseases, including cancer, can be very aggressive, and are difficult for everyone involved. Doctors, pain specialists and allied health staff at the Royal Children's Hospital are specially trained to minimise symptoms and make their patients as comfortable as possible, but current treatments, while often life-saving, always have some impact on kids' little bodies.
Thankfully, a little more than a year after her bone marrow transplant, Samantha is doing incredibly well. She has started school, and now has plenty of friends to play with.
Gayle is very proud of her Samantha: "She's just amazing, absolutely amazing. These kids who are going through treatments, there is a lot of suffering, a lot of pain and discomfort. Yet somehow they are able to smile through it.
Samantha hasn't - touch wood - been admitted for anything since April last year, and she's looking great. She had her first Christmas concert at school in December, and I just cried my eyes out. Because she's not supposed to be here. I can't believe that just a year ago she was fighting for her life."
Zoe looks normal and healthy on the outside, but inside her body fights constantly to stay healthy.
Zoe undergoes daily physio and regular ‘tune-ups’ to manage her condition, cystic fibrosis.
Bravery Beads are just part of a broader pain management program in the oncology ward and recently implemented into the respiratory ward of the Royal Children’s Hospital, a world first. Evaluation of similar programs in other children’s hospitals around the world indicates that it helps to decrease illness-related distress, increases the use of positive coping strategies, helps child find meaning during treatment and restores a sense of self.
