Gracey's Race Against Time

The family of a resilient one-year-old are hoping a stem cell donor will be found quickly to cure the tot's rare blood cancer

- By Roxanne Mooneys

The little girl flashes a toothless grin as she bounces in her aunt's arms, too young to be aware of the heartbreak and hardship she's endured in her short life.

Not only did Gracelyn Green lose her mother, her great-grandparents and her great-uncle in a devastating house fire last year, she's now battling a rare type of blood cancer.

Her only hope is a blood stem cell transplant and her aunt, Lizel Solomons, is hopeful they'll find a donor to save her life because Gracey is a fighter, Lizel tells YOU - just like her mom was.

Tragedy struck in the early hours of 4 June last year when a blaze broke out at Gracey's family home in Protea Park, Atlantis, in the Western Cape. The little girl's mom, Shanique Green(20), Shanique's grandparents, Susan and Gordon Green, and her uncle David Green were all asleep at the time.

Gracey was also in the house but her mother woke up and managed to pass the then six-month-old through a window to another uncle. She went back to help Susan (66) and Gordon (68) but collapsed in the intense heat.

Shanique, Susan and David died on the scene and Gordon passed away in hospital a few days later.

Shanique and Lizel were very close, like mother and daughter” or “best friends”, she says. When Shanique died, Lizel and her husband, Donovan, took Gracey in to live with them.