Whanganui girl welcomed back to school with guard of honour after 850 days of cancer treatment

A Whanganui girl who was so sick from cancer treatment that she was unable to walk for six weeks is now back at gymnastics.

Nine-year-old Maggie Wright has gone through 850 days of chemotherapy treatment and spent 152 nights in hospital.

Maggie’s sudden cancer diagnosis came on October 25, 2021.

“We just thought initially that she had some kind of virus, she was more puffy in her face and a bit red,” her mother Emma Wright said.

The doctor suspected Maggie had a viral infection, but when Emma Wright later noticed a vein bulging in her daughter’s neck she immediately took her to the emergency department at Whanganui Hospital.

“They checked out her lungs and it turned out she had this mass on her chest that had collapsed her left lung, and had compressed her heart right down.”

The next morning her parents and three siblings, Eddie, Ronnie and Annie, were flown with Maggie by air ambulance to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland.

Maggie Wright wearing her beads of courage, with her siblings Annie (back), Ronnie and Eddie Wright. Photo / Bevan Conley

After numerous tests, Maggie was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, which is a rare form of blood cancer.

The leukaemia treatment took over two years. She was 6 years old when it started.

At one of the lowest points, Maggie spent 18 days in the intensive care unit at Starship due to a serious infection.

“She wasn’t able to walk for six weeks and had to learn to walk again.”

The hardest part for Maggie was being away from her three siblings, especially her sister, whom she is very close to.

Covid-19 lockdowns in Auckland also made accessing hospital visits and flights more difficult. There was also the fear of Covid-19 infection.

Maggie in her colourful T-shirt for Shine Bright Day, marking the end of 850 days of chemotherapy treatment.

Reaching the end of a long journey of chemotherapy treatment has been a huge relief for Maggie as well as her family, but it has taken her mother some time to come to terms with.

“I guess it’s like with anything, you kind of have to process that in order to move on, and it took me a long time to process what we’ve been through and move forward,” Emma Wright said.

Students at Fordell School took part in a Shine Bright Day and wore rainbow, colourful clothing to celebrate the end of Maggie’s treatment.

At the gates of the school, they formed a guard of honour for her to walk through.

Emma Wright said watching her daughter make her way through the crowd of children was “the highest high we could have possibly got to”.

“I was thinking that for every lowest point, there was something as equally high.”

Fordell School celebrates the end of Maggie Wright's chemotherapy treatment with Shine Bright Day.

She said the community around the family did “a really good job”.

When Emma had to stay for long periods at Starship with Maggie, a meal delivery roster helped her husband care for the rest of the children.

“It really does take a village; the pre-school, the school, the community, they came together when she was first diagnosed and helped us out.

“And they all came together at the end to celebrate us.”

After time in hospital when Maggie was unable to walk, dance lessons helped her restrengthen her muscles.

Now, she has been able to resume her beloved gymnastics lessons.

Maggie has finished her cancer treatment but will be closely monitored by doctors for the next five years.

Emma says, ultimately: “You just have to hope for the best.”

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.