When three-year-old Annabelle Potts began to experience night terrors and became increasingly clumsy, bumping into walls and eventually starting to limp, her parents Kathie and Adam knew something was wrong.
“I think I screamed and said no,” Kathie Potts told news.com.au of the moment late last year when doctors told her that her little girl had an aggressive brain tumour.
Annabelle has been diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an inoperable brain tumour that’s notoriously difficult to treat. “He [the surgeon] said with this type of tumour we talk about it in a matter of months,” Kathie recalls.
Annabelle was rushed to Sydney Children’s Hospital for radiation therapy in December, The Canberra Times reports, but now all the family’s Australian treatment options have run out.
After months of tireless research into medical treatments worldwide, they have found a glimmer of hope in Mexico, where Annabelle is eligible for intra-arterial chemotherapy treatment with immunotherapy.
The entire family – Kathie, Adam, Annabelle and her little brother – will relocate to Mexico next week for the treatment. “It costs around $25,000 per treatment [and] they expect she’ll need eight to 12 treatments.”
The family has created a Go Fund Me page to raise money for the trip and treatment, which isn’t covered by health insurance. “We need help to save our little girl,” says Kathie. “Annabelle is five months past diagnosis, the doctors in Australia only give us nine months to live. We have to do something.”
So far, $182,168 of their $350,000 goal has been raised. If you can help, the Go Fund Me page is gofundme.com/annabellepotts.
