'I was told my one-year-old daughter had cancer. A month later, I found out I was pregnant.'

Maryanne was on a packed train home from work when she got the call.

It was the doctor ringing about her one-year-old daughter, Fiapule. 

"We've got results from the tests," the voice said over the phone. "But it's best [to find out] when you're at home, and you're sitting down with your husband."

The mother-of-two had been holding onto hope but "when you hear something like that, I knew it wasn't good news".

She hung up the phone and broke down in tears.

"Straightaway, that's when all the negative thoughts came through.... I just had a quiet cry on the packed train," the 38-year-old told Mamamia. 

After calling her husband and asking when he'd be home, all Maryanne could do was wait for the next 30 minutes until her train pulled into the station. 

When they finally arrived back at their Sydney home after picking up Fiapule and her other daughter Pua, who was then five, from daycare, the couple gathered around the phone to hear the news.

"All that our ears were listening up for was the word cancer," she recalled. 

But the word didn't come out of the doctor's mouth, at first. 

"[They said], 'We found a polyp and we tested it and it's come back as neuroblastoma which is a type of tumour'. That's all they had said." 

Having never heard of neuroblastoma before, they had questions. 

"We said 'wait is this cancer?' and they said 'Yes, it's a rare children's cancer found mostly in kids under two'."

This time, Maryanne didn't cry. Instead, she simply tried to process the news that her daughter, who was months shire of her second birthday, had stage four neuroblastoma, a cancer that claims more lives of children under the age of five than any other cancer.

"I was in shock... my heart dropped, because I was still a little bit hopeful."

"My husband was in tears. We had a lot happening because we had [the two girls] running around. We hung up, we processed and prayed and went to sleep ready for the next day."

***

If you had asked her a few weeks earlier, Maryanne would have told you her daughter was a perfectly healthy one-year-old. 

Then one day in 2021, she noticed something unusual when changing her nappy.

"When I went to wipe, I saw there was a bit of blood.... I didn't think anything of it," said Maryanne, who thought it had to do with Fiapule's recent bout of constipation.

"I just didn't think it was anything sinister."

But as the constipation went away, the spotting continued on and off for two weeks. 

With cancer the furthest thing from her mind, Maryanne spoke to her GP who referred her to a paediatrician. From there, she was told to go straight to the emergency department. 

Worried, Maryanne took Fiapule to hospital where she was given scans and blood tests, which revealed she had a polyp inside her cervix, which was then removed and sent away for testing. 

Two days later, in May 2021, Maryanne got the phone call on the train.

After receiving the results, things moved fast. 

Within the next few days, Fiapule had surgery to have a central line inserted into her chest and four days later, she started chemotherapy.

Being so young, it was hard for Maryanne to explain what was happening to her daughter and why she needed to be in hospital.

"It was traumatic for her because she didn't know why [the nurses] were touching her. So when it came to explain it to her, we just said. 'Look, we're going to the doctors. Fiapule is not well, the doctors are going to help you'."

Even for Maryanne, it was hard to accept what was happening. 

It wasn't until she noticed her daughter's hair starting to fall out that it really sunk in.

"She'd wake up and she'd have hair all over her bed. And I was like, wow, this is really happening, our child has cancer. It was hard as a parent, to feel so helpless that you can't do anything to help your child."

Image: Supplied.

A month after learning her daughter had cancer, Maryanne found out she was pregnant with her third daughter.

"To be honest, I was... I was devastated," she recalled. 

"As parents, having a child go through cancer and hearing the news that you're pregnant. I think for me, as a mum, that was probably the worst news. Because we just already had a lot happening."

"We had prayed for a baby - obviously, we didn't pray for cancer - and you know, we got that. It was just different timing."

For the next nine months, Maryanne relied on "adrenaline" and her Christian faith to get her through. 

"It was tough mentally," she recalled.

"When I look back, I think was just all adrenaline. As a mum, you're going through the motions of going to the hospital regularly and having a child go through treatment... When people ask me, 'how did you do it?' I just had to lean into God. That was the only way that I was able to do it."

During her treatment, Fiapule underwent five rounds of chemo and two stem cell transplants. 

The chemo ended up impacting her gut to the point where Fiapule couldn't tolerate food and she was given a nasogastric tube to help with feeding. 

Maryanne said the process of inserting the tube was one of the most "traumatic" parts of her daughter's treatment. 

"I couldn't even be in the room the first time they did it, because you physically have to hold your child down and they feed this tube, which is the same thickness as a phone charger cord, up through the nostril and then it goes down the throat and into the stomach."

"I just didn't want to see my daughter suffer."

In December 2021, in between the stem cell transplants, Maryanne welcomed her third daughter, Marie Avatea - a "blessing in the storm".

"She arrived through the hardest time in Fiapule's journey. And she just bought this feeling of... elation, and peace and it just changes the atmosphere of excitement. She was such a blessing for me and my husband."

Fiapule and her younger sister Marie Avatea. Image: Supplied.

In September 2022, Fiapule's scans came back clear, with the chemo and stem cell transplants successfully wiping out any remaining cancer. 

Maryanne was filled with "relief" and "gratitude". 

"It's a miracle. We met so many other families who were going through the same treatment and having different outcomes to us... We're grateful for her life, grateful for the support we had and grateful for God answering our prayers."

But while Fiapule's most recent scans have come up clear, there's still a 50 per cent chance of relapse. 

"There's a high chance of it coming back. And even when it does come back, they've got a lower survival rate."

It's a worry Maryanne and her husband carry in the back of their minds. 

For the first year after that clean scan, Fiapule had to return to the hospital every three months for a follow-up scan.

"Every time it's coming out to scan time, a lot of parents talk about this thing called 'scan-xiety' because of the unknown. Like she got gastro recently from daycare and that just brings up these thoughts again." 

For now, the family are keeping faith. 

With follow up scans now only required annually, Fiapule is enjoying life as a happy, determined and caring three-year-old, who loves playing cooking and spending time with her sisters.

Image: Supplied.

On the weekend, Fiapule, Maryanne and their family are taking part in Neuroblastoma Australia's Run2Cure fun-run to raise awareness and funds for treatment. 

"The hardest is seeing children the same age as Fiapule who have died from this, and it comes back to treatment. I really feel like it's the treatment they have in place is so toxic. Kids just respond differently to the toxicity on it."

The run is also a way to commemorate what their daughter has been through. 

"For our daughter to cross the finish line, for us, it's a celebration and a way that we can honour those who had lost their lives. We want to bring a bit of hope to other families as well."

It's hope, after all, that helped her family get through.

"We saw the power of staying positive throughout the journey as parents but also in our language to our child. We really saw her go through hard times... We would say to her, 'Fiapule Malosi' [meaning strong in Samoan]."

There were even times their positive self talk rubbed off on their daughter.

"During the toughest times, they shook us as parents but she would randomly say, 'I got this' out of nowhere."

And after 18 months of treatment, she proved she most certainly did. 

Fiapule, Maryanne and their family and friends will be participating in Neuroblastoma Australia's 'Run2Cure' fun-run this Sunday, April 2nd in the Domain, Sydney. You can register or donate here.

Feature Image: Supplied.