Guernsey Press

Girl, two, in remission from cancer that paralysed her is now walking

A viral tweet showing Hilarie toddling about has melted everyone’s hearts.

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Sara Zamkotowich was told by doctors that her infant daughter Hilarie would never walk, because a tumour was compressing her spinal cord.

Nearly two years later, the mother posted photos of her child happily toddling around in remission from the cancer that nearly killed her.

The tweet now has over 47,000 retweets and 203,000 likes, and people are showing an outpouring of love for the brave little girl.

Sara captioned the photos: “Stage four cancer WHO? Paralyzed from the belly button down WHOOOO???? My girl is running around in remission bitches.”

She went on to explain in another tweet that Hilarie was paralysed from the waist down while in treatment for cancer. The parents were told to never expect her to walk.

The family, who live in Manitoba, Canada, were faced with Hilarie’s cancer diagnosis when the little girl was just 16 months old.

Sara said: “Hilarie was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma – a type of childhood cancer – in October of 2016. The tumour was in her abdomen and grew to the point where it ended up compressing her spinal cord, leaving her paralysed.

“When they found the tumour we started with three days of radiation and chemotherapy immediately, which by the end of the week had removed pressure from her spinal cord making it so she could move her legs again.

“She still had a lot of work to do with her legs, but she started walking October 2017.

“We did seven rounds of chemotherapy, surgery – they removed 95% of the tumour – stem cell transplant, 20 days of radiation, and some immunotherapy.”

Hilarie is now two-and-a-half, and will be celebrating her third birthday in June after the news that she is in remission.

Although little Hilarie is still young, her mother says she understands some of her illness and is very happy to be in remission.

Sara said: “Hilarie doesn’t understand everything but she definitely understands what the hospital does and what it means.

“She knows about ‘pokes’ (injections) and how we might not come home if we go there (admissions), so she is VERY happy that there are less pokes and more home time!”

After the news that the toddler is on the mend, people rushed to comment on Sara’s tweet with an outpouring of love and support.

Sara said: “We are so blessed to have the amazing doctors, surgeons, and nurses that we do. They have gone above and beyond for us and our family will forever be indebted to them.

“With Hilarie’s diagnosis it required a ton of blood transfusions, our family is now passionate about blood donation and encourage people to go give blood. You never know who you could be helping.”

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