She's our LITTLE MIRACLE

After a tough few years, Annie is blossoming

- Ruth McCarthy.

Mum-of-three Shauni Morrissey knows how lucky she is as she cuddles her five-year-old daughter Annie.

“Annie is the most resilient and brave kid I know,” says Shauni, 30, remembering how the then-three-year-old was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in November 2020.

It all began when Annie started to lose her appetite, grew increasingly lethargic, and had a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea.

“We took her to the local emergency department, where we were told she had an ear infection and sent home with antibiotics,” tells Shauni, from Portland, Victoria. “But she just wasn’t getting better. Call it mother’s intuition, but I knew it was something more serious.”

After five visits to the hospital in the same week, blood tests were carried out, and Shauni and her partner Tom Pender, also 30, received the worst news imaginable.

Airlifted to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for treatment, Annie endured chemotherapy, infections and a life-threatening bout of bacterial meningitis.

“We held her hand constantly until she fell asleep, read her stories to make her laugh and stroked her head when she was in pain,” recalls Shauni.