Mum Taylor Fairman was giving her daughter Evie a loving cuddle when she made a terrible discovery.Taylor had lifted Evie, who was two at the time, up into her arms and felt a lump in her side.
Although Evie wasn’t feeling sick, Taylor instinctively knew all was not well with her daughter. She took Evie to hospital where an ultrasound revealed some bad news.
Evie had a tumour on her liver the size of two softballs and was diagnosed with a rare type of liver cancer, known as hepatoblastoma.
“We could have not found it for a few more months. Who knows what would have happened,” 27-year-old Taylor told Today.
Doctors believe Evie had been born with the tumour which had grown over time.
As Evie’s tumour was so large, doctors could not operate on it, so they recommended she begin a course of chemotherapy which they hoped would shrink the tumour small enough to be removed with part of the liver. This is known as a resection.
After four rounds of chemotherapy, doctors could perform a resection on Evie and removed the tumour. However, they could not repair her portal vein (an important blood vessel in the liver) which had been crushed by the tumour.
Following more chemotherapy, Evie was declared cancer-free in October 2016 and was starting to get back to her normal life.
“She was back to gymnastics and she was getting used to normal life,” mum Taylor explained.
But in February 2017 the family received some devastating news. Little Evie’s cancer had returned but doctors couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it was.
“It was so frustrating because you had to wait,” Taylor said.
In May, doctors found another tumour on Evie’s liver. Treatment options were limited because Evie had a liver resection before. This time, Evie needed a liver transplant.
The family remained hopeful that a donor would be found but in the meantime, Evie developed other complications.
Doctors discovered her bile ducts weren’t working because the tumour had damaged them and it had spread to her small bowels.
Now Evie needed a new pancreas and small bowel, as well as a liver. It seemed like the odds were stacked against the brave little girl.
The cancer had become so aggressive, that doctors didn’t want to wait and decided to begin chemotherapy again, which meant Evie had to be taken off the transplant list.
But just when the family had returned home and were ordering Evie’s medicine at the chemist, Taylor received a phone call with amazing news, a liver, small bowel and pancreas had become available for Evie.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I was almost in a state of shock and happiness because we didn’t think it was going to happen.”
On July 4, Evie underwent a triple organ transplant. She is still in intensive care and will require several more rounds of chemotherapy when she is better but her outlook is positive.
An incredibly grateful Taylor reflected on the sacrifice made by another individual to provide the organs.
“For her to have these organs, some other parents had to lose a loved one and it is because of their compassion that Evie is able to get this chance,” she said. “It’s something to admire … Someone that has compassion and kindness to truly help others when they are going through a loss.”
