Little Luna was a beautiful girl, with a cheeky smile and a force to be reckoned with. In July 2023, Luna’s parents heard six little words no parent ever wants to hear, “I’m sorry, your child has cancer.” Luna’s mum, Samantha, shares their story,
Luna had high-risk stage IV neuroblastoma, a rare, aggressive, and fast spreading childhood cancer.
Luna was a bright and funny two-year-old who loved collecting plushies, stickers, all things pink, drawing and colouring-in, riding her trike, watching funny cat videos on YouTube, dancing and singing, painting, spending all her time outdoors, and giving Smokey (her cat) cuddles.
Luna’s nerve cells had failed to mature properly, resulting in a grapefruit sized tumor growing off her kidney and adrenal gland. From there, it spread to her nearby lymph nodes, bone marrow and bones. Additionally, lesions were found in her pancreas and the primary tumor was found to be encasing her aorta. Her little body was riddled with cancer.
Without a moment to waste, Luna immediately began treatment. Her treatment plan was as follows: five rounds of induction chemotherapy, high-dose chemotherapy, multiple rounds of radiation, a bone marrow transplant, immunotherapy, and surgery to remove her primary tumour.
From the get-go, Luna has had numerous blood transfusions, platelet transfusions, biopsies, and had two central lines embedded into her chest for chemotherapy, IV nutrition, blood specimens and other necessary intravenous medicines.
From the very first day, she had a nasogastric (NG) feeding tube to help improve her nutrition and easily administer daily medications. Inevitably, she had her NG tube replaced on numerous occasions. It was an extremely traumatic experience for her. Her baby, ‘Bubby’, also wore a mini feeding tube and central line to help her get better too.
After her diagnosis, Luna completed frontline treatment. This was no easy feat. Treatments designed to save her life, were the very things that almost claimed her precious life. At the beginning of 2025, she commenced maintenance treatment – spanning over two years.
Luna successfully completed her radiation treatments which consisted of 2.5 weeks of back-to-back sessions, where she required daily general anaesthetic.
Luna encountered many obstacles on her treatment journey. During her high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant she suffered many terrible side effects. Even the “rare” ones. Like most children undergoing this treatment, she suffered terrible mucositis. This is essentially incredibly painful ulcers all the way from the lips, down the GI tract, to the bum.
Next, she was diagnosed with veno-occlusive disease (VOD). VOD can be life threatening, particularly if early intervention is not provided. It causes liver tenderness, swelling, fluid retention and jaundice to name a few. Despite being on eight-hourly preventative medication, Luna still suffered this horrible side effect.
The worst was yet to come.
Luna’s oxygen requirements were alarmingly increasing by the hour. She was transferred to Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) where they deemed her to have two varying degrees of respiratory failure.
We then learned Luna had a major pulmonary haemorrhage.
The oncology, hematology and PICU teams were having difficulties understanding what was causing Luna’s critical condition. There, they diagnosed her with transplant associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (IPT).
Due to her critical state, she was put on a ventilated mask to help with her oxygen requirements. Luna spent two incredibly difficult weeks in PICU. We were told there was a VERY high chance Luna would pass away from all of these complications. The teams were astonished by Luna’s speedy recovery and sudden turn around. It was nothing short of a miracle. Luna received treatment for her ITP for over 9 months with weekly injections.
Nothing could prepare us as her parents and close family for this absolutely devastating situation. While we were heartbroken beyond words, we took comfort in the fact that children are resilient and Luna had a lot of love and support around her.
Sadly, Luna passed in June 2025.
From birth Luna had spent her fair share of time in hospital. She should not have spent so much of her short life inside the white and clinical four walls of a hospital.
She should have been outside. In fresh air, playing in the sun, swimming, feeling the sand between her toes, exploring the world and enjoying herself like any other young child. There is no denying Luna was dealt an unfair hand, right from birth. Luna deserved to live a bright, happy, fulfilling and beautiful life. She deserved a fighting chance.
