Hannah Day, fighting for her life for more than two years, is now cancer free and enrolled at Happy Valley Elementary in Langford — determined to go to kindergarten in September.
“I think we’re just in shock. Everything has always gone wrong for us and nothing has gone our way,” said mother Brooke Ervin, in Vancouver.
“We did not think this day would come.”
Doctors are saying four-year-old Hannah is cancer free after a “Hail Mary” bone-marrow transplant using Ervin’s stem cells. Called a haploidentical transplant, the procedure had only a 40 per cent chance of success but thus far has worked.
Hannah has survived the first 60 days without organ failure and has been discharged from B.C. Children’s Hospital. She’s on 12 oral antibiotics to fight off rejection of the new cells and to keep her struggling organs working. The next hurdle is the 100-day mark.
“A lot can still really go wrong,” Ervin said, as Hannah squealed and played with her dad, Robert Day.
Once at the 100-day mark, the family, including younger sister Hailey, can return to their Langford home in June or July.
Hannah’s fifth birthday is in August.
“Regardless of what happens, there’s no more options,” Ervin said. “There’s a 60 per cent chance of a relapse [of leukemia] or death. … We’re not out of the woods yet — not even close.”
But for now the spirited girl has escaped a death sentence as her body fights with its new stem cells, and has in her grasp the possibility of a future.
The benchmark for full remission of childhood leukemia is two years, Ervin said.
The successful transplant comes after a high-profile campaign to find a stem-cell donor match. There was a Hope for Hannah concert featuring musician Vince Vaccaro. Tens of thousands signed up to be potential donors and thousands turned up for swab drives. DNA from the swabs is being used by OneMatch, a stem-cell and marrow registry run by Canadian Blood Services.
A match was found for Hannah — but it was too late. Doctors said Hannah’s body had suffered too much radiation from earlier treatments.
Hannah was diagnosed in 2012 with a rare type of cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma that attacks muscle tissue. Doctors blasted it with radiation but from that she developed leukemia.
Doctors decided she could not withstand the further intensive radiation needed to put her leukemia in remission to allow the stem-cell transplant.
The family was given the option of palliative care with the hope of living two years or a high-risk and rare transplant using Ervin’s stem cells.
Although only a half match, doctors hope Hannah’s cells will recognize her mom’s cells — which once protected her in the womb — and allow them to kill off the cancer cells.
Hannah’s parents weren’t prepared for two years of “lasts” and watching their daughter die.
“We wanted a cure, whatever the result,” Ervin said. “We had to give her the possibility of life.”
The family is now living at a temporary home in Vancouver. “It’s almost scary,” Ervin said of the freedom. Hannah is running, playing and climbing after being confined.
“It’s like having a newborn baby all over again. It’s nerve-racking,” she joked.
Happy Valley Elementary enrolled Hannah for September.
“It’s something we can only hope for — for her,” Ervin said.
