Heartbreaking moment boy, 14, cuddles his five-year-old sister as they BOTH bravely fight cancer together
Mum shares photo of incredibly moving moment when two of her children staying in same hospital together share a hug. The family discovered in one week that cancer had returned to both siblings.
A MUM'S heart-wrenching photo of two of her children both battling cancer shows them sharing a hug as they are treated together in hospital.
The photo taken of Jacob Randell, 14, and his five-year-old sister Sophia was posted earlier this year when the family thought it might be the last time the pair see each other.
Only last week the siblings found out their cancer had returned and for mum Liliane Hajjar, it is all she can do to find the strength to carry on, describing herself and her family as 'broken'.
"This is the most heartbreaking picture my eyes and heart have every seen. I'm broken.
"We are all broken," Liliane wrote on a Facebook post a few days ago along with another incredibly moving photo of their names side-by-side on the hospital door.
"This is not the life I imagined for them but it is what it is and we will walk with them every step of the way," she added.
Jacob was the same age as his sister is now when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
An inherited condition, the devastating illness meant he had to undergo a number of surgeries and treatments resulting in the loss of vision in one eye and hearing in one ear.
Just 10 months later, and with baby brother Liam now part of the family, Jacob and his parents were told the cancer had gone.
Sister Sophia was born and as a precaution the whole family was tested for the gene. Liam was negative, but Sophia tested positive and in 2016 doctors monitoring the little girl found a tumour on the left side of her brain.
She was treated for the tumour and both kids were doing well until January this year when Jacob was ill prompting mum Liliana to post the photo of him and Sophia hugging.
Then last week doctors diagnosed Jacob with kidney carcinoma and discovered that Sophia's tumour had returned.
Mum Liliane shared the photo of the two of them hugging when the family were called to Jacob's bedside in January this year thinking it might be the last time the pair see each other.
"You held on to your sister so tight in this picture. We are now holding you just as tight," she wrote.
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A campaigning page has been set up to help the family with expenses and a few days ago Liliane wrote some advice for other parents.
"You know when your kids (young and old) want to do something or ask with excitement to do something they like and you say 'later', 'maybe some other time'?
"Playing barbies, going to the park, playing a board game, well do it. Do it now. Don't wait. So many regrets of my many 'laters' are rushing through my brain now," she wrote in a moving post.
The siblings from Quebec are being treated at Ottawa's Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).