Belle's Brave Cancer Fight

A bump on the wrist ended with a shocking diagnosis for this dancer

- By Megan Rowe

Seeing vibrant Isabelle Northey warming up for her latest dance eisteddfod, you would never guess she spent last year fighting for her life.

With dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer, Isabelle, or Belle as loved ones call her, was a healthy and happy 10-year-old girl. Then in May 2022, all that changed when she bumped her wrist on a trampoline. It remained slightly swollen before Isabelle vomited and complained of chest pains.

Suspecting a small fracture, Isabelle's mother Chrystal took her along to their local hospital for an X-ray - never imagining that it would end in a cancer diagnosis.

"I thought that she had probably hurt her wrist again at dance, but I never thought it was anything more than a fracture," Chrystal, 36, recalls. "But as soon as the doctor called us in for the X-ray results, the look on his face told me this was extremely serious.

"When he said the word 'cancer', I just hugged Belle and cried - our world crumbled."