Spots were found on Amelia Topas’s body when she was born, which turned out to be a sign of cancer(Pictures: Kerri Paton/SWNS)
Purple spots found on a girl when she was a newborn baby turned out to be two forms of cancer.
Amelia Topas, now six, was born a healthy 6lbs 12oz but covered in the unusual looking spots.
Doctors told her parents Kerri and Igor it could be birthmarks, a liver problem or blueberry muffin syndrome, which can be linked to leukaemia.
She underwent an ultrasound, MRI and lumbar puncture before being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia.
Amelia, from Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, started chemotherapy at just three weeks old and received a marrow transplant soon after.
After eight months of treatment she went into remission, but six month later the youngster relapsed in acute myeloid leukaemia.
Mum Kerri said: ‘Igor was on the way (to the hospital) with Amelia and I had a phone call to say ‘I think best you can come in as well’.
Amelia, now six, has been in remission for five years (Pictures: Kerri Paton/SWNS)
The purple spots found on Amelia’s body when she was a newborn (Credits: Kerri Paton / SWNS)
‘I just knew it had come back.’
Amelia started chemotherapy again and received a stem cell transplant from an umbilical cord in the US.
She has now been in remission for five years and is thriving, according to her family.
Sign up to the Metro.co.uk Lifeline challenge
This year Metro.co.uk is proudly supporting Young Lives vs Cancer for our 2024 Lifeline campaign.
To help raise vital funds for the charity we are calling on our readers to join us on on 18 May for an an epic hike along the beautiful Jurassic Coast.
You can choose to do 25km or 58km and registration starts at just £15 with a fundraising minimum of £240 (25km) / £360 (58km). Alternatively, you can pay for your place and set your own fundraising target.
Whether you want to do it as a group or are signing up solo, as part of Team Lifeline, you’ll receive tons of support and advice, so that every step you take can make a massive difference to the lives of young cancer patients.
To sign up and find out more, click here.
Kerri, a supermarket worker, said she hadn’t realised there were any issues when her daughter was born in February 2017.
She said: ‘Once she was in my arms I just cried. I was so happy. I didn’t notice anything.
Kerri and Igor with Amelia and their youngest child Oscar (Pictures: Kerri Paton/SWNS)
‘The midwife noticed the spots all over her and went to get a doctor.
‘When we found out she had two types of cancer – it was awful.’
She said Amelia was ‘so little and tormented’ at the time and ‘would go purple from crying’.
Kerri said today her daughter is ‘slightly delayed in her speech’, but otherwise ‘absolutely amazing,’ she added.
Amelia is ‘funny’ and ‘fiercely independent’ says Kerri (Pictures: Kerri Paton/SWNS)
Oscar and Amelia (Pictures: Kerri Paton/SWNS)
‘She’s just so funny. She’s fiercely independent. She’s very strong-willed. She looks like a normal child now.
‘We got quite lucky that she was so young. She’s so young she won’t remember.
‘Even though she went through cancer, her story doesn’t end there.’
Kerri and Igor welcomed a second child, Oscar, in October 2018, and are now enjoying some normalcy as a family of four.
Last month the Metro looked into the worrying rise of cancer in young people.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.