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Brian couldn’t open his mouth to speak to the doctor. He could see in the doctor’s eyes that it wasn’t good news.

“Mr Littrell?” the doctor said.

“Sorry,” Brian said finding his voice.

“I’m afraid it’s bad news. Elly has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia,” the doctor said.

Brian tried to let the words sink in but he couldn’t believe that his little girl had leukemia. A few days ago and she had been fine. Sure she had been feeling under the weather recently but he never in a million years thought that this would be what had been making her ill. He turned to look at his little girl lying in the hospital bed. She looked so small and fragile. He could feel the tears fall from his eyes. One simple sentence from the doctor and his world fell apart.

“Brian?” Jackie said quietly snapping Brian from his thoughts.

Brian turned to face his mom and her heart continued to break for her baby son. She was feeling her own pain but she had to put that aside and be there for her son. She couldn’t let her own pain show.

“Honey you have to listen to what the doctor is saying,” she tried again.

Brian turned to the doctor to let him know that he was listening to what he had to say.

“We want to start her treatment straight away,” the doctor said.

“What treatment?” Brian asked.

“We want to start her first round of chemotherapy as soon as possible. It will give her the best chance.”

A small whimper escaped Brian’s mouth. He couldn’t believe this was happening. It was like something he would watch on TV not something he would live through.

“When is this going to happen?” Brian asked as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“As soon as possible. Since Elly is a young child we are going to insert a central line so she can receive the chemotherapy. This is a rubber tube that will be placed under the skin and will be attached to a central vein in her chest. The end of the tube will be on the outside and is sealed with a cap until chemotherapy is being received. It will be removed and the drugs will be injected into the line. I want to use this kind of treatment on her as she won’t have to be injected each time, which will hurt her, and it will also let us get blood samples a lot easier,” the doctor explained.

“OK,” Brian said quietly.

The doctor waited for a few minutes to let the words sink in for Brian and his family, before he spoke again.

“To insert this line however Elly will need to have a small operation, is that OK with you Mr Littrell?”

Brian looked at Elly and then back at the doctor and nodded his head slowly.

“OK I’ll send a nurse in to get her prepped for surgery,” the doctor said before he left the room.

Brian lifted Elly’s hand to his mouth and kissed it. He started to cry again as he watched his small daughter take every breath. He still couldn’t believe that she had leukemia.

“Son, the doctors are going to do everything that they can,” Harold told his son.

Brian looked away from Elly and up at his father like he had done when he was younger. He wanted to believe that everything would be ok and believe in the work of the doctors but he knew that doctors couldn’t save everyone.

“Baby, Elly will fight this. She’s just like her Daddy, a fighter.” Claire tried as she kissed the top of Brian’s head.

No amount of words though were helping the aching in Brian’s heart. None of them knew what he was going through.

“Mr Littrell, we’re ready to prep Elly for surgery,” the nurse said as she came into the room with a small medical trolley.

Brian turned to the nurse and for the first time knew that he had a long and heartbreaking journey ahead of him.