Chrissy Turner is said to have wit beyond her years, and as she prepares to undergo a mastectomy after being diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer, the eight-year-old from Utah will no doubt also display the strength of someone much older.
Going to her parents, Annette and Troy, after she found a lump on her chest in October, Chrissy was diagnosed with Secretory Carcinoma – a very rare form of cancer that only strikes one in a million people.
“Chrissy is the youngest that they’ve run across having this particular type of breast cancer,” explains Annette. “I broke down [when I found out]. It’s a struggle every day worrying about my family, about my husband and now my baby girl.”
Both Annette and Troy are cancer survivors themselves – Annette beat cervical cancer while Troy was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when Chrissy was a baby.
“She was our therapy when Troy was going through chemotherapy,” Annette said. “She was always making us laugh and she’s got the wit of someone far beyond her age.”
And now the brave little girl is determined to beat cancer just like her parents did.
“I was scared the first time I knew about it,” Chrissy said. “But I knew that I could fight it off and I hope that I can fight it off.”
Friends of the family have launched a Go Fund Me to help raise money for medical bills – a particular necessity after they were forced to file for bankruptcy in 2013.
“We’re just going to keep fighting,” Annette said. “Doing everything we can to smile every day and laugh every day and carry our head high and do our best to overcome this.”
