Bone and brain cancer survivor on a mission to walk into high school

As we age, we realise how much we took for granted, the exuberance and energy of our youth. When you are young you have the ability to hike and climb and do a number of physical tasks without worrying about taking a fall or staining a muscle.

For young girl, Aneisa Kalra, dealing with bone and brain cancer was her youth.

Aneisa was diagnosed neuroblastoma cancer at the age of one and was not expected to survive. Not only has she survived, she is now facing another challenge; high school.

Like her peers, Aneisa will proudly walk the halls of her high school next week. This is a big achievement, especially since no one knew if she would ever walk at all.

Aneisa’s mum Shaagu Kalra and dad Sarabjeet Kalra supported their daughter throughout the treatment her stage four neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer that occurs most commonly between the ages of one and five. The solid tumour starts from nerve cells and winds its way up the child’s abdomen, chest and eventually into the skull following along the line of the spinal cord.

After surviving the lethal childhood cancer Aneisa developed bone cancer. According to the Daily Telegraph, her parents were alerted to the fact when Aneisa complained about having a sore leg.

“It was exactly the same scenario we faced 10 years earlier but we went straight to oncology and she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer).” said Aneisa’s mother Shaagu Kalra.

Doctors removed cancer from her right femur and grafted materials from her lower leg to cure her of the disease.

Since recovering from the bone cancer, Aneisa uses a wheelchair but tells the Daily Telegraph she is determined to walk into her new school in Westmead, NSW on Tuesday.

“I want to walk in, that is my goal. I feel like the more I push, the more it will happen. I want to go to school on my crutches because in the wheelchair you are just not independent.” Aneisa said.

What do you think of this little girl’s determination? What message would you give her for her first day at school?

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