Beating cancer before turning two! MY MAE'S A MIRACLE

Charlotte is truly inspired by her toddler, who bravely battled a devastating diagnosis

- Fleur Guthrie

After an unplanned pregnancy fraught with severe morning sickness and hospitalisation, Charlotte Pritchard imagined the worst would be behind her once she gave birth to her daughter Mae.

Yet a mere eight months later, the young mum was bracing herself over the shock news that her precious baby had a rare cancer that develops in nerve tissue.

“I had some concerns when Mae was a few months old, but cancer never crossed my mind,” says Charlotte, who co-parents with Mae’s dad, Christchurch-based Jayden Chan, 23.

“She was breathing quite fast and things seemed to become a bit harder for her, like doing small movements, which seemed strange.

“My mum and I took her to the GP and saw the Plunket nurse, who both said, ‘She’s fine, babies just breathe a bit faster than us adults.’ I knew deep down that something wasn’t right, but it felt like people were saying, ‘You need to relax and not worry so much about her.’”

However, Charlotte’s maternal instincts were right. Two months later, she took Mae back to the doctor, explaining that her daughter had regressed. She wasn’t sitting up any more and was no longer able to push herself up on her tummy.

“The doctor then referred her on to a developmental paediatrician, but warned that if we went through the public system, it would take up to six months to see someone,” says the 25-year-old, who lives with her parents Jo and George in Karaka, south of Auckland.