My daughter had an injury most children experience regularly so I wasn't worried. I had no idea it was a sign of every parent's worst nightmare

When mum Alana Hodgson first noticed bruises on her seven-year-old daughter Kaylee's legs, she thought little of it. Children get bumps and scrapes all the time, but then came the leg pain, unusual paleness, and overwhelming fatigue - the first warning signs of Kaylee's looming leukaemia diagnosis. Then, one morning in February 2019, Kaylee woke up with a yellowish tinge to her skin. 'That's when I thought, "Oh, that's got to be kidney or liver issues" so we took her to the local doctor,' Alana told FEMAIL.

The family had only just moved to Salamander Bay in New South Wales, so they went to the first clinic they could find. Within moments of their appointment, the doctor sent them straight to the hospital. The family never expected that the visit would completely change their world. 'Her brothers had little colds, and we thought maybe she had caught something similar,' Alana said. Much to their shock, little Kaylee was given a rare blood cancer diagnosis.

When mum Alana Hodgson first noticed bruises on her seven-year-old daughter Kaylee's legs, she thought little of it. It was the first warning sign of a cancer diagnosis. Children get bumps and scrapes all the time, but then came the leg pain, paleness, and fatigue - the first warning signs of Kaylee's looming leukaemia diagnosis. 'Cancer was the last thing on our mind,' the mum said. Before the diagnosis, the couple knew something wasn't right when the doctors took them into a small, private room.

Alana and her husband had been there before - when they lost a baby - so she knew what was coming before the words were even spoken. 'I just grabbed my husband's hand, knowing that obviously it was something serious,' she said. 'And then, in the moment… you don't know what to think. Shock kind of takes over, and your first thought is, "Am I going to lose my child?".'. Kaylee, just a little girl at the time, didn't fully understand the weight of the word 'cancer' - but in an instant, her world changed.

There was no more school, no more dance classes, no more playing with her friends. Kaylee, just a little girl at the time, didn't fully understand the weight of the word 'cancer' - but in an instant, her world changed. Kaylee loved dancing and won a competition just weeks before her diagnosis. 'She loved doing her long hair,' Alana said softly. 'And within a week, it was gone.'. Kaylee's treatment started immediately.

'The very next day, she started chemo. She had surgery. She started steroids,' the mum recalled. 'It was an instant change, straight into it - full-on, lots of testing, lots of appointments.'. Kaylee had a port placed in her chest through which the doctors could administer chemotherapy. She also had to undergo a lumbar puncture to administer chemo directly into her spinal cord. The family was then hit with another blow.

After further testing, doctors discovered Kaylee had a genetic mutation called IKZF1plus, making her leukaemia even more aggressive. 'If you don't get out every drop of cancer down to a microscopic level, it will come back hard and fast,' Alana explained, which meant their only option was a stem cell transplant. Kaylee had a port put in her chest through which the doctors could administer chemotherapy, and she also had to have a lumbar puncture to put chemo straight into her spinal cord.

The family had to move to Sydney for 16 weeks, leaving behind Kaylee's two younger brothers with Alana's parents. 'We didn't get to see them for four months,' she said. Kaylee's transplant meant wiping out her entire immune system, and she had to undergo total body radiation twice a day, for three days in a row - and she was put under general anaesthetic for each procedure. 'You learn what radiation does - it breaks a lot of parts of your body,' Alana said.

'It could've shut down her ovaries; she may never have had her own children. But at the same time, it was the only thing that was going to save her.'. For a little over a month, Kaylee was isolated in a hospital room, unable to step outside. 'Her dad and I could pop in and out, but she was stuck there until she was healthy again,' Alana said. And then, during the lowest moment of her transplant, the family thought they were going to lose her.

Kaylee's transplant meant wiping out her entire immune system, and she had to undergo total body radiation twice a day, for three days in a row. 'She had no immunity, no energy. She wasn't eating. She had fluid around her heart,' Alana recalled. 'At any minute, she could have gotten any sickness, and we knew her body wouldn't be able to fight it off.'. Alana tried her best to keep Kaylee occupied at the time with games and video calls from her family, but the little girl couldn't stand doing anything for more than 20 minutes at a time before she had to take a nap.