A photo of a 3-year-old girl in Worcester, England offered clues that she has cancer before she was diagnosed with the disease.
Sign Of Leukemia
Dave Fletcher took a photo of his daughter Izzy falling asleep on a swing at a playground when she was just 23 months old. A few weeks later, Dave and his wife Vicky learned that their child's tiredness was actually a sign that she has leukemia.
"She was drowsy and fell asleep but I didn't think much of it. I thought it was a cute moment and just took a picture of her as you do," Dave said. "It was only afterwards we realised it was all part of the symptoms and what I'd captured was her displaying signs of something more sinister."
Dave said that his daughter had been tired, suffered from a few colds or viruses, and had a bit of bruising on her legs. The couple initially thought that these were just normal childhood bumps and minor illness.
They eventually brought their daughter to a doctor in January last year after a strange rash had appeared on her legs. They were told to come back later for blood tests if the rash does not disappear.
The toddler's rash, however, turned worse the next morning. She also had a high temperature, prompting her parents to take her to the hospital.
Diagnosed Early
That same day, Izzy was diagnosed with leukemia and started a course of chemotherapy the following week.
Izzy was enrolled in a clinical trial, which aims to see if changing the standard chemotherapy treatment can reduce the side effects and help prevent the disease from coming back. She will remain on treatment until next year. Her parents nonetheless consider it lucky that she was diagnosed early.
Leukemia
Leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood, is the most common kind of cancer among children and teens.
Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that there were 47,601 new cases of Leukemia reported in the United States in 2015.
