Family's 'complete shock' after Molly's sore ankle turned out to be a deadly condition

When Molly Halliburton was four-years-old, she started complaining about a sore ankle. ?

For three months, the persistent pain continued.

Her parents, Katrina and Mark, took her to multiple doctors for X-rays and scans, but nothing abnormal showed up. No one could determine the cause of the pain.

"She just kept saying to me, 'Mummy, my bone hurts'", mum Katrina tells 9Honey. "And it would hurt on and off. We just couldn't understand it. It wasn't broken."

Then one day, Katrina got a call from her little girl's preschool in the rural NSW town of Junee, near Wagga Wagga.?

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"They said, 'She has taken her shoe off and the pain is really bothering her. And she doesn't look well either'," Katrina recalls. ?

The concerned parents took Molly back to her GP, where another blood test was performed. ?Katrina wanted to check again for Septic Arthritis, which another doctor had flagged and ruled out earlier.

When the results came through, Katrina was told to take her daughter straight to Wagga Base hospital.

"I remember on the drive there, Mark said to me.. 'look at her. She is seriously sick. Then as soon as we walked through the doors, it was crazy.

"Someone yelled 'Is that Molly Halliburton? 'Get her upstairs now'."

Katrina and Mark were rushed upstairs where they were confronted with a team of doctors and nurses all crowded into a room.

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"Within minutes, they had taken Molly's shirt off ?and had machines all over her and I just thought, 'What is this?'" Katrina explains.

"Then one of the doctors said to me, 'You need to sit down. Molly has leukemia'."?

"I kept saying to the doctors 'No, she doesn't have cancer. The blood tests must be wrong. You must have made a mistake'.?"

The four-year-old was diagnosed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia?, a type of childhood cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.

"We were in complete shock. Mark and I both went numb. We never talked about the possibility that a sore ankle could be cancer. She did have one nosebleed and some night sweats but I just honestly didn't believe it.

"I kept saying to the doctors 'No, she doesn't have cancer. The blood tests must be wrong. You must have made a mistake'."?

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?In an instant, the family's life was turned upside down.

Katrina, Mark and Molly were told to pack their bags as they were being transferred to the Sydney Children's Hospital, over five hours away.

Katrina will never forget the words she heard that day.

"The nurse said "You need to prepare for this to be the toughest time of your life. You need to pack, you're not coming home for six months. They will get Molly through this, but you need to prepare yourself".

"From there, it's a blur. But as soon as we ?arrived in Sydney, I just knew we were in the best possible hands. I remember the instant I met Dr Toby I turned to Mark and said, 'That man is going to save our daughter'."

Molly began a gruelling course of oral and IV chemotherapy immediately?. However, the cancer cells didn't respond to the initial course, so she was switched to a high-risk protocol.

"She was severely depressed. She said, 'Mummy my smile is gone and I don't know how to get it back.' That broke my heart."

Unfortunately, one of the side-effects for little Molly was a deep depression.?

"She was severely depressed," Katrina explains. "She said, 'Mummy my smile is gone and I don't know how to get it back.' That broke my heart."

"She didn't want to play or get out of bed. She just lay there and watched TV. They were some of the hardest days. It was relentless."

Katrina says they tried everything to help bring back Molly's smile, but it was only when Captain Starlight came to visit that Molly began to respond.

"They just knew how to help her," says Katrina. "They got her to smile, they got her to laugh, and they got her out of bed".

"The impact the Captains had on Molly is immeasurable. Her face would light up if she heard their voices in the hall or saw a glimpse of their purple uniform."

"It was like a ray of sunshine coming into the room."?

Molly ended up staying in Sydney for 16 long months. ?Fortunately, they found an AirBnb to stay in so their youngest son Miller could also join them.

While she was having chemother?apy, Molly found out she had been granted a Starlight Wish.

When it came time to decide, Molly said she just wanted to see baby turtles hatch and help them to the water. And so the family travelled to Heron Island for some much-needed time away from hospital.

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"I thought it was a bit of a far-fetched wish but sure enough it was granted," Katrina said. "It was the most incredible experience and gave us all something to look forward to after such a horrific 16 months."

Today, Molly is a happy and healthy six-year-old in Year One who loves school, sports and reading. ?

"She loves life and she loves learning and being a normal kid again," Katrina tells 9Honey. "Going on playdates with friends and performing on stage. It's the little things that stop and take our breath away?."

Katrina is sharing Molly's story in a bid to raise awareness for the Starlight Children's Foundation and the incredible work they do.

"When you are in hospital you feel so helpless, and you become friends with other families. And as you see these new diagnoses you just wish it could end."

"People need to be aware how lucky we are to live in Australia, but if we don't fundraise and continue to raise awareness these things won't be there for families in the future.

"So donate money if you can. Donate blood. Blood products keep kids like Molly alive."?

Help Starlight raise $1.1 million by end of June to replace fear with fun for sick kids in hospital ¨C Donate here.

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