A DAD who thought his little girl was being bullied when she came home from school with bruises was left devastated after learning the youngster was seriously ill.
Eva Thornley returned home from classes with injuries on her legs in July. But when the marks didn't fade, mum and dad Katrina and Scott decided to take her for a blood test.
They then learned that Eva, who has just turned 10, was suffering with leukaemia.
Scott, 40, told the Manchester Evening News: “It’s like your whole world crumbles.
“All the worst possible scenarios were going through my mind.
“You just assume the worst straight away as a parent."
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He said he and Katrina had believed their daughter was suffering with a vitamin D deficiency, just like her older sister.
"We'd asked how she got the bruises but she didn't know. We thought they were from having a fight in school," he said.
"We didn’t think at all, not even in the slightest, that we would go to hospital and it would be leukaemia.”
Eva, of Tyldesley in Wigan, Greater Manchester, immediately began a course of intensive chemotherapy.
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But Scott says she's still "smiling and happy".
“Eva’s hair has fallen out now because of the chemo, but if you met her and spoke to her, you wouldn’t think anything was wrong with her," he said.
However, he admitted walking onto the children's ward after Eva's diagnosis hit the family like "a ton of bricks".
"I felt grief to be honest; it didn’t look like it was affecting me but inside it killed me," he said.
“There’s nothing whatsoever I can do to help my child. It’s an aggressive cancer so we’ve got the treat it aggressively."
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Eva’s sister Lily, 14, has since set up a Gofundme appeal to raise cash for every child on Eva’s ward.
The teen held a charity walk on August 17 around Tyldesley and has so far managed to raise almost £1,000. To donate, visit this link.
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