2-year-old with Down syndrome new face of Molly Appeal

Afamily originally from P.E.I.,whose daughter is in remission from cancer, is encouraging others to give to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation's fundraising Molly Appeal.

Ella Fraser, two years old, has Down syndrome, a genetic disorder in which a child is born with an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. She successfully finished treatment in June for childhood leukemia.

"It was a pretty devastating blow to our family," said Kent Fraser of the cancer diagnosis. "But at the same time we were introduced to an amazing medical team."

The Frasersare originally from the Montague area of Prince Edward Island but now live in Grand Desert, N.S.

'Made a huge difference'

Part of that team was pediatric hematologist-oncologist Dr. Jason Berman, a leading researcher in Down Syndrome Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, or DS AML the very type of leukemia Ella had.

"After the initial shock, we felt we were in very good hands," said Fraser.

Ella took part in Dr. Berman's clinical trial the first evertailoring treatment to the response of patients,so that children with better responses receive less intense treatment.

"This made a huge difference to our family," said Fraser. "It meant she got far less sick than many other children that we were seeing around us in the hospital. And also, it allowed her to actually come home. For our family that was pretty massive mentally ... and for speeding her recovery."

'Anything we could do to help'

Ella is now in remission and has a 93 per cent chance of being permanently cured, her mother Rebecca Martin-Fraser says "We're pretty excited about those odds." Ella will have frequent blood tests for the next two years to monitor.

The Molly Appeal is raising funds for cell-analysis equipment and a genome informatics training program that will accelerate Dr. Berman's work to better understand and treat DS AML and other forms of blood cancer. The annual appeal has raised $5 million over 35 years.

"We really wanted to do something to try to give back to the research community because our journey was so much improved and our daughter was so much healthier because of the research," said Kent.

"Anything we could do to help further that cause for other families, then we definitely wanted to get on board."

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With files from Angela Walker