Being diagnosed with leukaemia is a frightening experience for any teenager to face, let along in the middle of a pandemic. That is the challenge that two Melbourne girls endured. But despite the isolation, they forged a unique friendship. Now, they have reunited with medical researchers who investigated their treatment, so they can learn to help other children with cancer.
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00:00From the cancer ward to creating treatments, these teenagers are getting a glimpse of their
00:10possible futures in the medical world.
00:13So that I can help other kids like me because I do specifically want to be a paediatric
00:17oncologist and I want to be able to like be there and be like no I truly know how you
00:23are feeling.
00:26Both were at the receiving end of this research, now they're joining forces with those who
00:31gave them hope during a week's work experience at Melbourne's Hudson Institute.
00:37Amazing to be able to like meet them all because they're basically the ones who like helped
00:42cure my cancer right.
00:43It's like yeah a silver lining I guess to the whole experience that you know they're
00:47now really motivated to go into STEM and to become doctors, scientists you know in the
00:52future and I think that's really amazing and lovely to see.
00:57The girl's friendship was forged in the worst of circumstances, enduring leukaemia during
01:02isolating COVID lockdowns.
01:05A mystery infection when her immune system was virtually wiped out, saw Tiana almost
01:11lose her fight.
01:12I was in a coma for three days and that was really scary especially for my mum.
01:19Even before I was put into the coma my mum told me that she used to stay up at night
01:23and like stand over me to make sure that I didn't stop breathing or anything.
01:28While you're in hospital there's not many people that you can like relate to so being
01:33able to like make a friend was like just a really nice thing to have.
01:38Each year nearly 300 Australian children are diagnosed with leukaemia and in the past treatments
01:44have been merely adapted from adult therapies.
01:48But researchers here hope to specifically tailor new treatments to childhood diseases
01:54making them more effective, less toxic and longer lasting.
01:59That would be really amazing because what I went through was terrible and I don't want
02:06anyone else to go through that.
02:07I guess there's like two pathways when you've had experience with cancer.
02:12You could like either try to drive away from it and disassociate with it or you can go
02:19on the path where you want to learn more and be more educated about it.
02:25Raya hopes as a future pharmacist she can dispense medications that don't cause as much
02:30nausea.
02:31Someone recommended to have a ginger beer and that worked really well actually.
02:36And researchers say as much as the girls are learning from them, they're also getting some
02:41valuable lessons.
02:43And it's hugely motivating for all of us in the lab to see them, to talk to them, to hear
02:47their story and to help them achieve their dream.
02:50A dream that one day could see them united again.
02:54That would be really cool if we ended up in the same area, same place, but never know.
03:01I wouldn't know anyone better to be doing it with considering that we've both gone through
03:06the same thing and we both know what it's like.
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