FLEUR'S FIGHT HER HEADACHE WAS CANCER

THIS BUBBLY TEENAGER WON’T LET BRAIN CANCER DULL HER SPIRIT

- April Glover

Your early teenage years are usually filled with school, friends, sleepovers, and the upheavals of going through puberty.

But for 13-year-old Fleur Bakker, the last year of her life has been a blur of hospital visits, countless treatments and heartache.

The Perth teenager was enjoying her last day of school before the holidays in 2018 when she felt a headache and a wave of tiredness. It seemed innocent enough, but that morning, Fleur collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

After running some tests, doctors couldn’t believe Fleur had been feeling healthy and was walking around only hours earlier. They found she had stage 4 brain cancer.

“Fleur went from a lively and seemingly healthy [girl] to a very sick little lady,” Fleur’s mum Miranda tells New Idea.

“The tumour had also sugarcoated Fleur’s whole brain and spinal cord. She was like a walking time bomb.”

For Fleur’s parents Miranda and Michael, it felt like their world had stopped turning. How could their sweet, bubbly girl be on the brink of death?

But there was no time to process the news – they had to decide if they should risk everything and have Fleur’s tumour removed right away.