Dunedin family tells of tough year after 7-year-old diagnosed with cancer

ikah Bohn Bitcheno, 4, Yvonne Bohn and Ayla Bohn Bitcheno, 7, on a family day out at St Kilda Beach yesterday. Photo / Gregor Richardson

It started with a lingering cold.

Ayla Bohn Bitcheno was feeling pretty miserable, so her mother Yvonne Bohn took her to their local GP, where they discovered the 7-year-old had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

"I really didn't expect it to be anything serious until the doctor started asking lots of questions.

"I was like, 'Oh yeah, she has had a lot of bruises that haven't gone away as quickly as I would have expected'.

"The doctor also felt her lymph nodes, which were enlarged, and her liver was enlarged, which we wouldn't have noticed."

Ayla was sent for blood tests and she was officially diagnosed with cancer in May last year.

"I just collapsed, broke down and started hyperventilating."

Soon after, Ayla was sent to Christchurch to receive chemotherapy and steroids.

But a reaction to the first round of chemotherapy caused some of her major organs to stop functioning, so she spent two months in intensive care.

Following an adjustment to her chemotherapy, Ayla is now back home in Dunedin receiving "maintenance" treatment, and the prognosis is good.

Looking back, Bohn said it had been a "horrific year" — one she and her family would have struggled to deal with had it not been for the New Zealand Child Cancer Foundation.

"We want to be a part of their fundraising efforts because they do so much for families like ours. It was just amazing to have their support.

"Life was so difficult but they made it that little bit easier."

The Child Cancer Foundation has cancelled this year's annual street appeal because of health and safety concerns for volunteers amid the growing Covid-19 outbreak.

So the foundation is urging New Zealanders to make donations this March, through its website or by texting CHILD to 3457 to give $3.

The street appeal is the foundation's biggest fundraising event of the year, and cancelling it risked losing about $300,000 in vital donated funds to support New Zealand children with cancer.

Foundation chief executive Monica Briggs said three New Zealand families each week were told their child had cancer.

The foundation provided them with one-to-one emotional and practical support every step of the way.

"We don't receive any charitable funding from the government, so we rely on the generosity of fellow Kiwis to help these families."