A young girl from Utah is facing a tough challenge today: she's fighting a rare form of breast cancer.
Chrissy Turner, 8, of Centerville, Utah, and her family discovered a lump on her breast sometime in October. Upon biopsy, they discovered that she has a secretory carcinoma, a rare type of slow-growing breast cancer that affects children and early teens. However, it's incredibly rare that only one in every million teens and children is diagnosed with it. She's also currently the youngest to be diagnosed that her case is now being reviewed by the country's best oncologists.
As part of her treatment, she will undergo a mastectomy, or removal of her breasts, in Huntsman Cancer Institute and a follow-up care in Primary Children's Hospital.
Despite the diagnosis, the child is remaining optimistic. She shared that initially she felt scared, but she believes she could fight it, especially since she has her parents, Tony and Annette, as role models.
Both her parents have also been diagnosed with cancers over the years. Her mother Annette had cervical cancer, which she was able to beat in 2000. His father received news that he has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2008. He already underwent treatment and went into remission but a PET scan in 2011 revealed the cancer is back, although it isn't growing. Right now, Tony needs regular checkup to carefully monitor the tumor growth. Because of the financial strain the diseases placed on the family, the couple filed for bankruptcy two years ago.
To help the family, particularly now that Chrissy is fighting a similar battle, the family's close friend Melissa Papaj has decided to set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of raising $100,000. The page called Chrissy's Alliance, has already been shared more than 2,000 times in Facebook. It has also raised almost half the goal in seven days.