A nine-year-old girl is battling ovarian cancer after doctors found a hard lump in her side was actually an ovarian tumour.
Dakota Rose was rushed into surgery last Friday to allow doctors to remove as much of the 13-centimetre tumour spreading across her abdomen as they could.
It was only two weeks ago that she had felt a pain in her side.
The Brisbane Times reported Rose received her second blast of chemotherapy on Wednesday.
The treatment aims to destroy the rest of the cancerous cells that remain in her body.
Rose has been joined at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane by mum Pam, who was forced to leave her job in disability services in order to be with her daughter.
The family expects to be in Brisbane for treatment for months.
Dad Chris has remained at home and at work as he battles to feed three other children and pay the mortgage.
Grandmother Gracie Cooper said the family were struggling to cope.
"They're just like two lost souls at the moment, just trying to keep it together," Gracie said
Cooper said that keeping the bills paid and paying for flights to visit Rose had become a needless financial strain.
"We're trying to have as little financial stress for these guys so they can stick together as a family," Cooper said.
A GoFundMe page has been created by Rose's older sister Grace in order to assist the family in their upcoming trials.
The campaign currently sits at around $10,000 after only three days of being launched.
Paediatric and adolescent oncologist Dr Rick Walker told The Brisbane Times that instances of ovarian cancer in somebody as young as Rose were "few and far between".
Watch as Mamamia discusses some of the key symptoms of Ovarian cancer. Post continues after video.
Rose is suffering from a malignant ovarian germ cell tumour - a tumour that is considered rare but generally found in younger patients.
Dr Walker said tumours that affected children tended to be more 'curable' than those affecting the adult population.
"In terms of survival with chemo it's actually over 85 per cent for malignant germ cells," he said.
"The good thing with just paediatric cancers overall is that they tend to be more curable than the adult ones."
Rose faces up to 18 weeks receiving chemotherapy treatment depending on how she responds.