A grandmother has told of her heartbreak after having to battle cancer at the same time as her baby granddaughter.
Alicia Fivecoat, 62, from Houston, Texas, was devastated when she was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year after discovering a golf ball-sized mass under her arm.
Just as she started treatment in the New Year, her emotions took another hit when she learned her soon-to-be one-year-old granddaughter Whitney had also been diagnosed with blood cancer.
Over the next several months, Alicia and Whitney went through the brutal side effects of treatment and chemotherapy together, such as losing their hair and being hit by extreme fatigue.
Due to the age gap, and different needs, Alicia was treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center, while Whitney was admitted to Texas Children’s Hospital down the road.
Alicia told Good Morning America that the turn of events were ‘most surreal.’
Little Whitney’s leukemia diagnosis came about after her parents, Shelly (Alicia’s daughter) and Tyler McAfee, noticed some swelling and bruising around her eyes.
After they took her for a check-up, doctors discovered she had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which starts in the bone marrow and moves quickly into the blood.
The American Cancer Society notes that AML mostly occurs in adults over the age of 45, and the average age of diagnosis is 69.
Overall, around 20,800 people in the US are diagnosed with AML a year and it accounts for about one out of three leukemias in adults.
As with adults, children are treated with chemo drugs until the bone marrow shows no more leukemia cells.
During Whitney’s treatment, her parents were required to stay with her at the hospital for over 40 days.
This meant they had to juggle hospital visits with getting home to look after their four-year-son.
Thankfully, friends and family stepped into help during the most intense stages of Whitney and Alicia’s treatments.
After several rounds of chemotherapy, Whitney received a bone marrow transplant in June from an anonymous donor.
In August, her mom Shelly revealed on Facebook that the procedure had gone well and the infant was doing great.
She informed her followers: ‘Life outside of the hospital! Whitney is 56 days post transplant!
‘We follow up three days a week in clinic for routine blood work, medication adjustments and transfusions as needed.
‘We are thankful with how far we have come and continue to pray for more good days ahead.’
Whitney’s dad Tyler said that watching his daughter fight cancer alongside his mother-in-law was extremely tough.
He added: ‘It reminds you how fragile life is, and that it doesn’t obviously matter how old you are or what stage you are in your life, you never know what the next stage will bring.’
Alicia said that Whitney’s bravery throughout her treatment helped give her strength.
The grandmother told GMA: ‘When you know that your granddaughter, who at that point wasn’t even a year old, has already done that treatment, it made me realize, “You know what, I can do this.”
‘There were several different instances where I was scared about what I had coming up, and Shelly would go, “Mom, Whitney’s already done that.” So I’m like, “Well, OK, I can do this too, you know.”
Along with chemotherapy, Alicia underwent a double mastectomy in August as part of her breast cancer treatment.
Now, almost a year after their diagnoses, both Alicia and Whitney are doing well.
Alicia has eight more rounds of chemotherapy treatments left to go, with breast reconstructive surgery to follow.
Meanwhile, Whitney, now 19 months old, has regular checkups following her transplant.
Her specialist doctor at Texas Children’s Hospital, Dr. Erin Doherty, said she had never seen a grandmother and granddaughter go through chemotherapy at the same time.
Thanks to the prompt treatment, she says that Whitney should go on to live a ‘long, healthy life.’
